NEGRO  LIFE 
IN  THE  SOUTH 

PRESENT  CONDITIONS 
AND  NEEDS 


BY 


W.  D.  WEATHERFORD,  PH.D. 

I1 


WITH  A  SPECIAL  CHAPTER 
ON  THE  ECONOMIC  CON 
DITION  OF  THE  NEGRO 

BY 

G.  W.  DYER,  PH.D. 

Assistant  Professor  of  Economics  ind  Sociology  in  Vtnderbilt  University 


NEW  YORK 

YOUNG  MEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION  PRESS 
1910 


8PBEOKEU 


Copyright,  1910,  by 

THB  INTERNATIONAL  COMMITTEE 

OF 
YOUNG  MEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS 


DEDICATED  TO  THE  COLLEGE  MEN  OF 
THE  SOUTH,  IN  WHOSE  TOLERANT 
SPIRIT  AND  UNSELFISH  INTEREST 
LIES  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NEGRO  RACE. 


210819 


PREFACE 

During  the  month  of  April,  1908,  a  company 
of  seven  men,  four  negroes  and  three  white  men, 
came  together  in  the  City  of  Atlanta  to  discuss 
the  present  race  question,  with  special  reference 
to  what  the  college  men  of  the  South  might  do 
to  better  conditions.  Those  present  in  this  con 
ference  were  Dr.  W.  R.  Lambuth,  Missionary 
Secretary  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South;  Dr.  Stewart  R.  Roberts,  formerly  a  pro 
fessor  at  Emory  College,  Georgia,  now  profes 
sor  of  physiology  in  the  Atlanta  School  of  Phy 
sicians  and  Surgeons;  President  John  Hope,  of 
Atlanta  Baptist  College  (colored),  a  colored  man 
of  broad  education  and  scholarly  spirit;  Profes 
sor  John  Wesley  Gilbert,  one  of  the  most  schol 
arly  and  sane  minded  negro  men  in  the  South; 
Messrs.  W.  A.  Hunton  and  J.  E.  Moorland, 
secretaries  of  the  Colored  Department,  Inter 
national  Committee  of  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations,  and  the  author. 

We  spent  six  hours  in  a  very  thorough  and 
earnest  conference,  the  result  being  a  unanimous 
vote  to  have  a  text  book  prepared  on  the  negro 
in  the  South,  which  could  be  used  in  the  Home 
Mission  classes  of  the  College  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations.  The  task  of  preparing 
this  text  book  was  placed  upon  the  author  by 


VI  PREFACE 

this  committee.  On  one  particular  phase  of  this 
study,  the  economic  conditions,  I  have  called  to 
my  assistance  an  expert,  who  is  specially  qual 
ified  to  speak  on  this  subject.  Dr.  G.  W.  Dyer, 
who  writes  this  chapter,  is  a  Virginian,  who  was 
reared  in  the  midst  of  the  economic  reconstruc 
tion  after  the  war,  and  has  been  a  close  student 
of  every  phase  of  economic  life  in  the  South.  He 
was  graduated  from  two  Southern  colleges, 
Randolph  Macon  and  Vanderbilt  University,  and 
holds  his  doctor's  degree  from  the  University  of 
Chicago.  He  is  now  Assistant  Professor  of 
Economics  and  Sociology  in  Vanderbilt  Uni 
versity. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  say  that  the  author 
is  a  Southern  man,  a  graduate  of  Vanderbilt  Uni 
versity,  and,  since  leaving  college,  has  been  the 
Student  Secretary  of  the  International  Com 
mittee  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 
for  the  South. 

It  will  thus  appear  that  this  volume  has  been 
prepared  by  those  who  have  spent  their  lives  in 
the  midst  of  the  conditions  about  which  they 
write.  They,  therefore,  have  no  reason  to  be 
prejudiced  for  or  against  the  negro  any  more 
than  should  any  other  Christian  man  of  the 
section,  save  wherein  a  thorough  study  of  con 
ditions  may  have  brought  new  convictions. 

It  is  difficult  always  to  think  calmly  and  to 
speak  without  passion  on  a  problem  such  as 
this,  but  a  deliberate  attempt  has  been  made  to 
state  the  facts  in  all  fairness  and  calmness.  It 
is  believed  that  the  educated  men  of  the  South 
will  be  glad  to  study  these  facts  in  the  same 


PREFACE  Vll 

spirit.  In  them  alone  do  we  have  any  large 
hope,  for  most  of  the  untrained  men  are  too  full 
of  prejudice  to  face  fairly  or  solve  justly  such 
a  momentous  question.  On  the  college  men, 
therefore,  rests  the  burden  of  responsibility  in 
this  matter. 

If  this  little  volume  arouses  new  interest,  and 
stimulates  such  careful  study  as  will  help  toward 
the  proper  solution  of  this,  the  nation's  greatest 
problem,  the  writers  of  the  same  will  be  more 
than  satisfied. 

W.  D.  WEATHERFORD. 

Nashville,  Tenn., 
June,  i,  1910. 


CONTENTS 

PREFACE  .... 

I 

WHY  STUDY  THE  NEGRO  QUESTION  ?      .  .  I 

II 
THE  ECONOMIC  CONDITION  OF  THE  NEGRO       .          2/ 

III 
THE  HEALTH  AND  HOUSING  OF  THE  NEGRO   .          59 

IV 
THE   EDUCATION    OF   THE    NEGRO  .  .          85 

V 
THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE  OF  THE   NEGRO     .  115 

VI 
WHAT    CAN    WE    DO?  .  .  .  .       147 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  .....       177 


IX 


I 

WHY  STUDY  THE  NEGRO  QUESTION? 


THE  DESERTED  PLANTATION 

Oh,  de  grubbin'-hoe's  a-rustin'  in  de  co'nah, 
An'  de  plow's  a-tumblin'  down  in  de  fiel', 

While  de  whippo'will's  a-wailin'  lak  a  mou'nah 
When  his  stubbo'n  hea't  is  tryin'  ha'd  to  yiel'. 

In  de  furrers  whah  de  co'n  was  allus  wavin', 
Now  de  weeds  is  growin'  green  an'  rank  an'  tall; 

An'  de  swallers  roun'  de  whole  place  is  a-bravin' 
Lak  dey  thought  deir  folks  had  allus  owned   it  all. 

An'  de  big  house  Stan's  all  quiet  lak  an'  solemn, 
Not  a  blessed  soul  in  pa'lor,  po'ch,  er   lawn ; 

Not  a  guest,  ner  not  a  ca'iage  lef  to  haul  'em, 
Fu'  de  ones  dat  tu'ned  de  latch-string  out  air  gone. 

An'  de  banjo's  voice  is  silent  in  de  qua'ters, 
D'ain't  a  hymn  ner  co'n-song  ringin'  in  de  air ; 

But  de  murmur  of  a  branch's  passin'  waters 
Is  de  only  soun'  dat  breks  de  stillness  dere. 

Whah's  de  da'kies,  dem  dat  used  to  be  a-dancin' 

Ev'ry  night  befo'  de  ole  cabin  do'? 
Whah's  de  chillun,  dem  dat  used  to  be  a-prancin' 

Er  a-rollin'  in  de  san'  er  on  de  flo'? 

Whah's  ole  Uncle  Mordecai  an'   Uncle  Aaron? 

Whah's  Aunt  Doshy,  Sam,  an'  'Kit,  an'  all  de  res'? 
Whah's  ole  Tom  de  da'ky  fiddlah,  how's  he  farin'? 

Whah's  de  gals  dat  used  to  sing  an'  dance  de  bes'? 

Gone!     Not  one  o'  dem   is   lef  to   tell   de   story; 

Dey  have  lef  de  deah  ole  place  to  fall  away. 
Couldn't  one  o'  dem  dat  seed  it  in  its  glory 

Stay  to  watch  it  in  de  hour  of  decay? 

Dey  have  lef  de  ole  plantation  to  de  swallers, 
But  it  hoi's  in  me  a  lover  till  de  las'; 

Fu'   I  fin'  hyeah   in   de   memory  dat  follers 
All  dat  loved  me  an'  dat  I  loved  in  de  pas'. 

So  I'll  stay  an'   watch  de  deah  ole  place  an'  tend  it 
Ez  I  used  to  in  de  happy  days  gone  by. 

'Twell  do  othah  Mastah  thinks  it's  time  to  end  it, 
An'  calls  me  to  my  quarters  in  de  sky. 

— PAUL  LAURENCE  DUNBAR. 


WHY  STUDY  THE  NEGRO   QUESTION? 

Foreword 

In  a  time  like  ours  when  there  are  so  many 
vital  subjects  demanding  attention,  and  every 
subject  is  represented  by  many  books,  it  is  only 
legitimate  that  men  should  ask,  "Why  study  the 
race  question?"  If  it  is  not  a  question  of  first 
importance,  if  it  does  not  have  to  do  with  our 
daily  lives,  if  it  does  not  vitally  affect  our  phy 
sical,  intellectual  or  moral  well-being  separately 
or  collectively,  then  there  can  be  no  urgent  neces 
sity  for  the  study  of  this  question.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  can  be  shown  that  this  race  prob 
lem  enters  into  every  relationship  in  Southern 
life,  if  it  can  be  shown  that  our  health,  our  in 
tellectual  advancement,  and  our  moral  lives  are 
hedged  about  and  often  limited  by  the  disease, 
the  ignorance,  and  the  immorality  of  another 
race ;  and  if  it  can  be  further  shown  that  we,  as 
Christian  college  men,  have  an  opportunity  to 
better  these  conditions,  we  will  have  a  sufficient 
reason  for  the  study  of  so  difficult  a  question. 

Our  Ignorance  of  the  Facts 

My  first  answer  to  why  we  should  study  this 
question  is,  that  we,  as  Southern  college  men, 
are  woefully  ignorant  of  the  facts.  It  has  been 

3 


4  NEGRO  LIFE  IN   THE  SOUTH 

said  hundreds  of  times  in  print  and  from  the 
platform  that  this  question  cannot  be  handled  by 
the  Northern  man,  because  he  is  hundreds  of 
miles  removed  from  the  scene  of  action,  and 
does  not  know  the  facts.  I  believe  that  most  of 
the  Northern  men  are  coming  to  accept  the  truth 
of  this  statement,  and  most  of  the  best  informed 
negroes,  such  as  Booker  T.  Washington,  are 
saying  plainly  that  the  North  does  not  and  can 
not  know,  at  least  under  present  conditions,  the 
real  race  problem.  With  this  first  statement, 
there  is  always  coupled  the  second,  that  the 
Southern  white  man  does  know  and  can  there 
fore  solve  the  Southern  race  question.  I  de 
liberately  challenge  this  statement.  I  feel  per 
fectly  sure  that  we,  as  Southern  white  men,  know 
much  more  of  real  negro  life  than  men  of  other 
sections  can  possibly  know;  I  feel  sure  also  of 
the  fact  that  the  best  and  more  broad  minded 
men  of  the  South  are  more  intensely  interested  in 
this  question  than  men  in  any  other  section  can 
possibly  be;  and  I  further  feel  sure  that  this 
question,  if  ever  solved,  must  be  solved  by  the 
broad  minded  Southern  men  leading  the  way 
and  calling  to  their  aid  the  broad  minded  and 
philanthropic  men  of  all  the  nation.  But  do  we 
as  Southern  men  know  the  negro? 

Knowledge  of  Servant  Class   Only 

We  know  the  negro  as  a  hired  servant  in  our 
homes.  We  know  Aunt  Mary,  who  cooks  our 
meals,  who  waits  on  our  table  or  acts  as  house 
maid  in  our  homes.  We  know  John,  the  butler, 
or  the  coachman,  or  the  gardener.  We  know 


WHY  STUDY   THE   NEGRO  QUESTION?  5 

the  day  laborer  who  cleans  the  street  or  hauls 
the  coal,  or  runs  the  grocery  wagon.  We  know 
one  or  two  negro  men  who,  because  of  more 
intelligence,  have  positions  as  mail  carriers,  and 
perhaps  we  know  half  a  dozen  negroes  who,  be 
cause  of  skill  and  hard  work,  have  entered  the 
list  of  skilled  employment.  But  all  of  these  we 
know  only  in  their  work.  We  do  'not  know 
their  thought;  we  do  not  know  their  religious 
life;  we  do  not  know  their  home  life. 

The  Church,  the  Home,  the  School 

Probably  the  three  best  indices  of  the  real 
character  of  a  people  are  their  religion,  their 
schools  and  their  homes.  Of  the  religious  life 
of  the  negro,  we,  as  Southern  men,  know  almost 
nothing.  Most  of  us  have  not  visited  half  a 
dozen  negro  churches  in  our  lives,  and  then  only 
as  onlookers,  rather  than  attempting  to  enter 
into  the  spirit  of  the  service  and  trying  to  find 
its  real  message.  Neither  have  we  studied 
their  school  life.  We  have  passed  the  negro 
school  house  every  day  of  our  lives,  have  seen 
the  negro  college  perched  on  the  hill,  but  never 
have  we  visited  these  places  more  than  once  or 
twice  to  see  what  was  actually  going  on  in  them. 
It  has  never  occurred  to  most  of  us  that  these 
school  buildings  have  anything  of  interest  for 
us,  and  nine  cases  out  of  ten  we  do  not  know  the 
negro  preacher  or  the  negro  teacher  who  pre 
sides  over  the  nearest  church  or  school.  Neither 
do  we  know  the  home  life  of  the  negro.  I  have 
again  and  again  asked  groups  of  college  men 
how  many  negro  homes  they  had  ever  entered. 


6  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

I  have  rarely  ever  found  men  who  had  been  in 
more  than  two  or  three  or  half  a  score  at  the 
most.  Even  where  men  have  gone  into  negro 
homes,  they  have  been  of  the  poorer  type.  It 
has  been  the  home  of  the  washwoman,  the  cook 
or  the  servant  man.  The  real  life  of  the  negro 
we  do  not  know.  There  is  much  justice,  though 
it  hurts  us  as  Southern  men  to  admit  it,  in  the 
statement  of  Ray  Stannard  Baker,  after  his 
careful  and,  on  the  whole,  fair  minded  observa 
tions  of  conditions  in  the  South : 

"But,  curiously  enough,  I  found  that  these 
men  rarely  knew  anything  about  the  better  class 
of  negroes — those  who  were  in  business,  or  in 
independent  occupations,  those  who  owned  their 
own  homes.  They  did  come  into  contact 
with  the  servant  negro,  the  field  hand,  the  com 
mon  laborer,  who  make  up,  of  course,  the  great 
mass  of  the  race.  On  the  other  hand,  the  best 
class  of  negroes  did  not  know  the  higher  class 
of  white  people,  and  based  their  suspicion  and 
hatred  upon  the  acts  of  the  poorer  sort  of 
whites,  with  whom  they  naturally  come  into  con 
tact.  The  best  elements  of  the  two  races  are  as 
far  apart  as  if  they  lived  in  different  continents ; 
and  that  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  grow 
ing  danger  in  the  Southern  situation.  It  is  a 
striking  fact  that  one  of  the  first — almost  in 
stinctive — efforts  at  reconstruction  after  the 
Atlanta  riot  was  to  bring  the  best  element  of  both 
races  together,  so  that  they  might,  by  becoming 
acquainted  and  gaining  confidence  in  each  other, 
allay  suspicion  and  bring  influence  to  bear  on  the 


WHY  STUDY  THE   NEGRO  QUESTION?  7 

lawless  elements  of  both  white  people  and  col 
ored."1 

It  is  not  fair  to  judge  a  race  by  its  weaker  ex 
ponents  alone,  neither  is  it  fair  to  judge  a  race 
simply  by  one  aspect  of  its  life.  We  must  know 
its  whole  life  before  we  can  claim  to  know  the 
race.  If  we  are  to  have  a  right  to  speak  with 
any  authority  on  this  race  question,  and  if  we  are 
to  have  our  proper  share  in  bringing  about  a  true 
race  adjustment,  we  will  need  to  study  with  care 
all  the  essential  activities  of  this  race.  To  what 
other  group  of  men  can  this  appeal  be  so  fairly 
made,  and  from  what  other  group  of  men  should 
there  be  such  ready  response  as  from  college 
men? 

Self-Preservation 

Again,  it  is  important  that  we  study  this  ques 
tion,  because  only  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
situation  will  enable  us  to  take  such  steps  as  will 
insure  our  own  safety — physical,  mental  and 
moral.  However  carefully  we  may  guard  our 
contact  with  the  negro — and  no  sane  white  man 
in  the  South,  and  few,  if  any,  sane  negroes  be 
lieve  in  promiscuous  mingling — there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  destiny  of  the  Southern  white 
man  is  inextricably  intertwined  with  that  of  the 
Southern  black  man.  Whatever  affects  one, 
affects  the  other,  whether  we  want  it  so  or  not. 

Health  Relations 

Every  day  we  put  our  health  in  the  hands  of  the 
negro,  because  he  cooks  our  meals,  washes  our 
1  "Following  the  Color  Line,"  p.  44. 


8  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

linen,  cleans  our  homes,  and  nurses  our  children. 
If  he  is  clean  and  healthy,  it  is  well  with  us ;  if  he 
is  unclean  and  diseased,  woe  be  to  the  white  man 
whom  he  serves.  Recently  a  malignant  epidemic 
of  typhoid  fever  broke  out  in  an  Alabama 
female  college.  A  number  of  girls  died,  many 
others  were  in  bed  for  weeks  and  months, 
some  of  them  will  never  be  so  well  again.  Prof. 
William  Litterer,  bacteriologist  of  Vanderbilt 
University,  Medical  Department,  was  asked  to 
make  an  investigation  of  the  cause  of  the  epi 
demic,  and  after  an  exhaustive  search  the  in 
fection  was  traced  to  a  negro  boy  employed  as  a 
dishwasher,  "who  was  a  walking  arsenal  of 
typhoid  germs."  Those  mothers  and  fathers 
who  lost  their  daughters  in  this  epidemic  would 
be  easily  convinced  that  it  is  worth  while  to 
make  a  careful  study  of  the  race  problem  with 
the  purpose  of  seeing  to  it  that  there  is  better 
sanitation  and  health  conditions  among  the 
negroes  who  work  in  our  homes.  Whether  we 
sit  down  to  dinner  in  our  home  or  in  a  hotel, 
it  is  a  vital  question  which  cannot  lightly  be 
passed  over — under  what  sanitary  conditions 
does  the  negro  who  cooked  this  meal  and  the 
negro  who  served  it  live?  To  be  indifferent  to 
the  health  question  of  the  negro  is  to  be  indiffer 
ent  to  the  sickness  and  disease  which  may  rob  us 
of  our  health  or  the  health  and  life  of  our  own 
loved  ones. 

Intellectual  Relations 

This  is  equally  true  of  the  intellectual  life  of 
the  Southern  white  man.     We  are  bound  down 


WHY  STUDY  THE   NEGRO   QUESTION?  9 

and  hedged  about  by  the  ignorance  of  our  serv 
ants  and  our  laboring  class.  Not  long  since  a  col 
lege  president  was  writing  to  me  about  a  college 
graduate  who  wanted  a  place  in  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  work,  and  in  his  letter  he 
apologized  for  the  poor  English  of  this  student 
in  the  following  words :  "His  weakest  spot  is  his 
spoken  English,  as  he  grew  up  in  a  community 
so  thickly  populated  by  negroes  that  he  has  never 
been  able  to  shake  off  some  of  the  dialect."  It 
is  probably  impossible  ever  to  estimate  just  how 
much  of  a  handicap  are  the  superstitions,  the 
prejudices  and  the  ignorant  fears,  which  are  be 
ing  daily  poured  into  the  minds  of  Southern 
childhood  by  the  ignorant  servant  class.  In 
simple  self-defence,  we  must  see  to  it  that  the 
negroes  are  freed  from  at  least  the  grosser  forms 
of  ignorance  and  superstition. 

Moral   Contagion 

Nor  can  we  escape  the  moral  contagion  of 
close  contact  with  those  who  are  morally  leprous. 
The  latest  word  of  psychology  and  sociology  is 
that  character  is  not  taught  but  character  is 
caught.  Character  is  as  contagious  as  measles 
or  confluent  smallpox.  Henry  Drummond 
once  said:  "I  become  a  part  of  every 
man  I  meet,  and  every  man  I  meet  becomes 
a  part  of  me."  Almost  every  child  in  the 
well-to-do  Southern  home  is  more  in  the  com 
panionship  of  the  nurse  than  of  the  mother,  up 
to  the  age  of  six — that  is,  during  those  very 
impressionable  days  when  character  is  just  taking 
shape.  Even  in  the  less  wealthy  homes,  the 


IO  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

child  is  constantly  thrown  into  the  presence  of 
the  servants,  and  if  these  servants  be  immoral 
in  any  sense,  the  consequent  detriment  of  char 
acter  is  sure. 

The  constant  presence  of  those  who  are  im 
pure  and  immoral  means  the  gradual  lowering 
of  ideals,  the  deadening  of  conscience,  the  loss  of 
the  sense  of  sin.  Who  of  us  has  not  seen  just 
such  a  process  going  on  in  a  Southern  house 
hold? 

No  Arraignment  of  Servants 

These  words  are  not  written  as  an  arraignment 
of  negro  servants,  for  I  am  well  aware  that 
hundreds  of  servants  are  honest  and  true,  and 
while  they  are  usually  ignorant  as  to  books,  they 
not  infrequently  have  that  truer  knowledge 
gained  from  contact  with  life,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  that  unselfishness  of  spirit  and  genuineness 
of  soul  which  makes  them  a  real  blessing  to 
the  home  in  which  they  work.  But  so  long  as 
there  are  many  of  the  opposite  type,  so  long  as 
there  are  many  who  live  in  unsanitary  hovels  and 
are  filthy  in  body,  ignorant  and  superstitious  in 
mind,  and  leprous  in  soul — just  so  long  will  they 
be  a  plague  to  our  Southern  white  people.  In 
the  interest  of  self-defence,  every  intelligent 
white  man  must  study  this  question,  and  be  pre 
pared  to  take  his  part  in  the  physical,  social,  in 
tellectual,  and  moral  regeneration  of  this  ne 
glected  race. 

Race  Antagonism 

Again,  there  is  need  of  study  of  this  question 
because  of  the  growing  spirit  of  race  antagonism 


WHY  STUDY  THE   NEGRO  QUESTION?  II 

and  unrest.  That  there  is  such  an  antagonism 
in  certain  sections  can  hardly  be  denied.  The 
reasons  for  this  are  not  far  to  seek.  The  passing 
away  of  the  old-time  darkey  with  his  simplicity, 
love  of  the  plantation,  and  devotion  to  the  people 
of  the  "big  house/'  the  rise  of  the  younger 
negro,  with  less  respect,  with  less  ability  as  a 
trained  workman,  with  possibly  less  disposition 
to  work;  the  rise  also  of  the  educated  negro 
class,  sometimes  arrogant,  always  and  rightly 
more  independent ;  the  passing  of  the  old  planta 
tion  owners  who  knew  the  negro  far  better  than 
the  present  generation  of  white  men ;  these  have 
made  possible  less  and  less  of  real  understanding 
between  the  two  races,  and  have  brought  on 
many  conditions  of  friction.  Besides  these  nat 
ural  causes  of  race  antagonism,  there  have  been 
three  classes  of  men  who  have  piled  fuel  on  the 
fire  and  fanned  the  smouldering  embers  into 
flame. 

Prejudiced  Southern  White  Man 

The  first  is  that  class  of  Southern  white  men 
who  are  utterly  incapable  of  seeing  anything 
good  in  the  negro.  I  met  one  of  them  not  long 
since — a  physician — who  in  one  breath  declared 
hell  was  too  good  for  the  negro  criminal,  and 
in  the  next  breath  claimed  the  negro  had  no 
soul.  He  was  somewhat  surprised  and  seemed 
not  to  catch  the  point  when  I  asked  him  if  he 
thought  his  horse  would  go  to  hell  because  in  a 
fit  of  ill  temper  he  kicked  his  master.  But  the 
more  dangerous  Southern  white  man  is  he  who 
mounts  the  political  stump  and  with  wild  gestic- 


12  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

illations  cries,  "Social  Equality,"  "Negro  Dom 
ination/'  "Race  Amalgamation,"  and  such  other 
blood  curdling  shibboleths,  and  so  stirs  up  such  a 
race  antagonism  that  men  forget  all  about  the 
real  political  issues,  and  the  demagogue  rides 
into  office,  at  the  expense  of  justice  to  the  negro 
and  the  self-respect  of  the  white  man.  We  have 
had  all  too  many  of  these  political  demagogues — 
these  so-called  "defenders  of  the  white  man's 
honor  and  the  white  woman's  virtue."  It  is  high 
time  that  the  college  should  know  enough  about 
this  question  not  to  be  browbeaten  and  befogged 
into  supporting  any  such  cheap  gerrymanderism. 

The  Radical  Negro 

The  second  man  who  stirs  up  race  hatred 
is  the  radical  negro,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  he 
frequently  comes  from  the  ranks  of  the  educated. 
This  type  of  man  finds  his  best  expression 
through  the  "Niagara  Movement,"  organized  by 
Prof.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  the  express  object  of 
which  is  to  continually  protest  against  all  forms 
of  discrimination.  Its  purpose  seems  not  to  be 
the  helping  of  the  colored  race  to  be  worthy  of 
position,  but  the  stirring  up  of  that  race  to  de 
mand  and  take  certain  so-called  rights.  The 
public  exponent  of  this  ideal  has  been  the 
"Guardian,"  published  by  William  Monroe  Trot 
ter,  in  Boston.  This  group  of  men  is  hot  in  its 
denunciation  of  Booker  T.  Washington,  because 
he  believes  in  conciliation  and  constructive  work. 
They  believe  that  the  whole  regime  of  the  pres 
ent  is  wrong  and  should  be  destroyed.  This  atti 
tude  toward  Washington  is  best  displayed  in  a  ref- 


WHY   STUDY  THE   NEGRO   QUESTION?  13 

erence  to  him  by  Professor  DuBois:  "So  thor 
oughly  did  he  (Washington)  learn  the  speech  and 
thought  of  triumphant  commercialism,  and  the 
ideals  of  material  prosperity,  that  the  picture  of  a 
lone  black  boy  poring  over  a  French  grammar 
amid  the  weeds  and  dirt  of  a  neglected  home  soon 
seemed  to  him  the  acme  of  absurdities.  One 
wonders  what  Socrates  and  St.  Francis  of  Assisi 
would  say  to  this  .  .  .  It  is  as  though  Na 
ture  must  make  men  narrow  in  order  to  give 
them  force."1 

These  men  can  as  little  see  any  virtue  in  a 
Southern  white  man  as  the  Southern  demagogue 
can  see  virtue  in  the  negro.  I  cannot  better  convey 
the  spirit  of  bitterness  and  hatred  of  this  radical 
negro  wing  than  to  give  one  or  two  quota 
tions  from  some  of  its  leaders:  "In  general," 
says  William  A.  Sinclair — a  South  Carolina 
negro  and  a  college  graduate — "a  spirit  of  cruel 
intolerance  dominates  the  white  population  of 
the  whole  Southland.  Its  church  life,  despite 
the  many  excellent  and  truly  Christian  members, 
both  men  and  women,  betrays  strange  deformities 
and  inconsistencies;  in  large  measure,  ignoring 
alike  the  Golden  Rule,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
the  divinely  beautiful  lesson  of  the  Good  Samar 
itan,  and,  in  short,  the  more  vital  and  central 
truth  of  the  entire  teaching  of  Jesus  himself — 
the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of 
man/'2  Or, take  another  quotation  from  Professor 
Du  Bois,  which — whatever  measure  of  truth 
or  falsity  there  may  be  in  it — has  much  more  of 

1  "Souls  of  Black  Folk,"  p.  43. 

2  "The  Aftermath  of  Slavery,"  p.  4. 


14  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

bitterness.  Speaking  of  slavery, he  says :  "So  after 
the  war,  and  even  to  this  day,  the  religious  and 
ethical  life  of  the  South  bows  beneath  this  bur 
den.  Shrinking  from  facing  the  burning  ethical 
questions  that  front  it  unrelentingly,  the  Southern 
Church  clings  all  the  more  tenaciously  to  the  let 
ter  of  a  wornout  orthodoxy,  while  its  inner, 
truer  soul  crouches  before  and  fears  to  answer 
the  problem  of  eight  million  black  neighbors.  It 
therefore  assiduously  'preaches  Christ  crucified' 
in  prayer  meeting  patois,  and  crucifies  'niggers' 
in  unrelenting  daily  life."1  Such  wholesale  and 
bitter  denunciations  of  a  whole  people  can  be 
nothing  else  than  the  expression  of  prejudice 
rather  than  the  word  of  statesmanship. 

Northern  Enthusiast 

The  third  disturbing  element  is  that  of  the 
Northern  enthusiast  who  feels  sure  he  could 
settle  the  whole  race  question  if  he  had  a  few 
years  to  give  to  it.  It  is  a  source  of  real  rejoic 
ing  to  most  men  who  earnestly  face  this  question 
that  this  tribe  is  rapidly  dying  out.  Were  it  not 
for  these  disturbing  elements,  the  relations  be 
tween  the  races  would  be  cordial  enough.  It  is 
gratifying  to  note  that  in  spite  of  them  Dr. 
Booker  T.  Washington,  after  an  extended  tour 
through  South  Carolina,  can  say; 

Booker  T.  Washington's  Testimony 

"My  object  in  going  on  this  educational  tour 
was  to  see  for  myself  the  actual  condition  of  my 
own  race,  and  to  say  a  word  wherever  I  could 

'"The  Negro  in  the  South,"  p.   170. 


WHY  STUDY  THE   NEGRO  QUESTION?  15 

that  would  improve  their  life,  and  to  note  the 
actual  relations  existing  between  white  people 
and  black  people,  and  to  make  a  suggestion 
wherever  I  could  that  would  further  promote 
friendly  relations.  Of  course,  in  a  great  State 
like  South  Carolina  one  cannot  fail  to  see  many 
things  that  are  wrong,  that  are  unjust,  that  need 
changing  for  the  better.  Notwithstanding  this 
fact,  I  was  surprised  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  the  trip  at  the  tremendous  progress  that 
the  negro  race  is  making,  and  at  the  friendly  re 
lations  existing  between  black  people  and  white 
people. 

"In  South  Carolina,  as  in  most  parts  of  the 
South,  I  found  the  individual  relations  between 
black  and  white  nearly  all  that  could  be  hoped 
for.  We  frequently  get  a  wrong  impression  of 
conditions  in  the  South  because  we  place  too 
much  dependence  upon  utterances  made  in  Con 
gress  or  in  newspapers,  or  when  some  one  is  on 
parade.  Everywhere  I  went  I  found  at  least  one 
white  man  who  believed  implicitly  in  one  negro ; 
I  found  at  least  one  negro  who  believed  implicitly 
in  one  white  man ;  and  so  it  goes  all  through  the 
South.  So  long  as  these  individual  relations  are 
as  kindly  as  they  are,  there  is  great  hope  for  the 
future."1 

The  fact  remains,  however,  that  there  is  no 
small  amount  of  unrest  and  race  prejudice,  which 
it  behooves  every  sane  searcher  for  truth  and 
every  true  lover  of  his  Southland  to  allay  where 
possible.  This  can  only  be  done  after  a  careful 
and  fair  minded  study  of  the  whole  race  problem. 

1  Outlook,  May  i,  1909. 


l6  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Rightly  Directed  Progress 

There  is  also  need  for  study  of  this  problem  in 
order  that  the  future  advancement  of  the  negro 
may  be  in  the  right  direction.  If  we  look  to  the 
single  department  of  education,  we  must  be  con 
vinced  that  the  negro  is  advancing  and  will  con 
tinue  to  advance  whether  we  like  it  or  not.  If 
we  of  the  South  do  not  help  direct  this  growing 
intellectual  life,  they  of  the  North  will,  and  we 
shall  have  no  one  but  ourselves  to  blame  if  the 
education  is  falsely  directed.  Any  one  who 
fairly  investigates  the  history  of  Northern  phil 
anthropy  must  be  struck  with  the  large  un 
selfishness  of  the  givers,  even  if  their  zeal  does 
sometimes  seem  to  act  without  sufficient  knowl 
edge.  Much  of  this  money  has  been  poorly  ad 
ministered  because  we  as  Southern  men,  who 
ought  to  have  been  in  position  to  give  sane  coun 
sel,  have  not  sufficiently  studied  this  question  to 
be  able  to  formulate  any  reasonable  constructive 
policy.  After  his  tour  through  South  Carolina 
to  which  I  have  referred,  Booker  T.  Washington 
wrote  to  the  Outlook: 

"I  was  convinced,  too,  as  I  made  this  trip 
through  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  that  more 
and  more  in  the  future  an  effort  should  be  made 
to  speak  directly  to  the  best  type  of  Southern 
white  people  about  our  methods  and  aims  in 
the  education  of  the  negro.  There  is  too  much 
discussion  at  long  distance.  In  many  cases  the 
white  people  in  the  South  do  not  understand  the 
methods  that  are  being  pursued,  nor  the  object 
sought.  In  proportion  as  we  are  perfectly  frank 
with  each  other  the  difficulties  are  going  to  dis- 


WHY   STUDY   THE   NEGRO   QUESTION?  17 

appear,  and  larger  amounts  of  money  are  going 
to  be  forthcoming  from  the  South  itself  for  the 
education  of  the  black  man." 

There  is  further  need  of  a  constructive  edu 
cational  policy  for  the  negro,  because  for  every 
dollar  given  by  Northern  philanthropy,  we 
ourselves  have  paid  out  of  our  own  pockets 
probably  ten  dollars  in  taxes  toward  the  ne 
gro  public  school.  Up  to  1906  it  was  estimated 
by  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education 
that  for  this  purpose  alone  the  South  had  paid 
$132,000,000  since  the  war.  Mr.  W.  T.  B. 
Williams,  Field  Agent  of  the  Slater  Fund,  writ 
ing  in  the  "Southern  Workman,"  Nov.,  1908, 
estimates  the  amount  spent  on  negro  public 
schools  since  1870  at  $155,000,000.  During 
this  period  the  illiteracy  of  the  negro  has  been 
reduced  by  half.  The  negro  is  therefore  being 
educated,  however  slowly.  But  how  is  he  being 
educated?  Is  his  increasing  knowledge  such  as 
fits  him  for  larger  and  better  usefulness  and  for 
more  worthy  citizenship?  Is  he  being  educated 
away  from  life  or  into  a  truer  life?  These  are 
the  pertinent  questions  which  every  educated  man 
of  to-day  must  help  to  answer.  Up  to  the  present 
time,  be  it  said  to  our  shame,  we  have  done  little 
as  Southern  white  men  to  answer  these  questions 
properly.  It  is  no  more  than  truth  to  say  that 
General  Armstrong,  a  Northern  white  man  and 
a  Union  soldier,  the  founder  of  Hampton  Insti 
tute,  and  Booker  T.  Washington,  a  Southern 
negro  and  an  ex-slave,  the  founder  of  Tuskegee, 
have  probably  done  more  than  any  dozen  South 
ern  white  men  to  answer  these  questions  aright. 


1 8  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

We  need  more  Southern  men  who  can  write  and 
speak  with  the  knowledge  and  sanity  of  Edgar 
Gardner  Murphy,  in  his  'The  Present  South"  if 
we  are  to  give  proper  direction  to  this  new  in 
tellectual  movement. 

Encouragement 

Again,  we  should  study  this  question  in  order 
that  we  may  know  the  encouragement  of  the 
negro's  progress.  Not  a  few  Southern  men  have 
become  darkly  pessimistic  about  the  future  of  the 
negro  race.  Some  think  that  the  door  of  hope 
is  forever  shut  in  his  face.  I  must  confess  that, 
although  a  Southern  man,  reared  in  the  midst 
of  the  large  negro  population  of  Texas,  and  at 
tending  college  in  Nashville,  a  city  where 
negro  education  is  at  its  best,  I  have  been 
constantly  surprised  at  the  marvellous  progress 
of  the  negro  race.  In  1908,  Ray  Stannard  Baker 
estimated  that  negroes  owned  1,400,000  acres 
of  land  in  the  State  of  Georgia  alone,  and  paid 
taxes  on  $28,000,000  worth  of  property.  Prof. 
John  W.  Gilbert,  one  of  the  most  capable  and 
sane  negro  leaders  in  the  South,  has  re 
cently  estimated  that  negroes  own  200,000  farms, 
worth  approximately  $700,000,000,  and  that 
$500,000,000  worth  of  these  farms  are  en 
tirely  free  of  debt;  that  in  1900,  in  cities  and  vil 
lages,  negroes  owned  126,329  homes  free  from 
debt ;  and  that  negroes — not  stinting  in  their  con 
tributions — have  built  churches  valued  at  $40,- 
000,000.  Forty-eight  per  cent,  of  the  race  are 
members  of  churches,  and  the  generous  contribu 
tions  they  make  annually  to  missions  would  put 


WHY   STUDY  THE   NEGRO  QUESTION?  IQ 

to  shame  many  of  our  wealthy  white  churches. 
Booker  T.  Washington  has  said,  again  and 
again,  that  fifty-seven  per  cent,  of  the  negro  race 
is  now  literate,  although  forty  years  ago  illiteracy 
was  well-night  universal. 

But  these  figures  are  abstract,  and  the  real 
story  of  race  progress  is  only  thoroughly 
understood  when  one  goes  into  the  best  bar 
ber  shop  in  Atlanta  and  finds  it  owned  and 
operated  by  a  negro,  with  negro  barbers 
at  the  chairs,  or  visits  a  Georgia  plantation 
of  a  thousand  acres — as  it  is  possible  to  do — 
owned  by  one  negro,  or  goes  into  the  home  of  an 
educated  negro,  as  I  did  recently  in  Texas — 
where  the  building  is  commodious  and  modern, 
where  there  are  good  carpets  on  the  floors,  a  piano 
in  the  parlor,  and  you  could  not  tell  from  appear 
ances  that  a  white  banker  did  not  live  there.  Or, 
if  one  wants  further  to  be  convinced  of  this 
progress,  let  him  visit  a  high-grade  negro  church. 
Some  months  ago  one  of  the  connectional  officers 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South  and  I 
had  to  break  our  journey  across  the  South  by 
stopping  in  a  Southern  city  to  spend  Sunday.  At 
eleven  o'clock  we  went  up  to  the  first  church  and 
listened  to  a  good  average  sermon  from  the 
pastor.  After  the  service  we  went  for  a  walk 
before  dinner  and  chanced  to  come  upon  a  lead 
ing  negro  church.  We  went  in,  and  found  the 
first  floor  filled  to  overflowing  with  a  well- 
dressed,  orderly  and  reverent  congregation — it 
would  seem  more  than  a  thousand — so  we  were 
shown  to  the  gallery  by  a  polite  and  altogether 
well-appearing  negro.  The  sermon  had  just 


2O  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

begun  from  the  text:  "I  am  the  way,  the  truth 
and  the  life."  It  was  clear,  logical,  filled  with 
practical  and  helpful  truth,  and  as  it  progressed 
my  connectional  officer  and  preacher  friend 
leaned  over  and  whispered  to  me:  "The  white 
church  would  do  mighty  well  to  trade  preachers 
with  this  negro  church."  And  he  was  perfectly 
right.  The  whole  service  was  of  a  high  order, 
and  would  have  done  grace  to  any  white  church 
I  ever  attended. 

Tuskegee^ 

Or,  if  one  prefers,  let  him  visit  Tuskegee,  and 
look  into  the  faces  of  fourteen  hundred  negro 
boys  and  girls;  hear  their  trained  chorus  of  a 
hundred  voices  render  the  old  plantation  melodies 
with  matchless  power;  go  to  their  wood  shops, 
blacksmith  shops,  model  laundry,  bakery,  millin 
ery  establishment,  and  see  the  splendid  work 
done;  hold  a  Bible  study  institute  for  five  hours 
on  a  hot  spring  day  without  anybody  leaving; 
see  five  hundred  and  twenty-five  men  enroll  in 
the  voluntary  study  of  the  Bible ;  and  three  years 
later  learn  that  the  number  has  grown  to  seven 
hundred  and  thirty ;  finally,  let  him  learn  that  not 
a  single  graduate  of  this  school  has  ever  been  in 
jail  for  any  crime  whatsoever — and  if  he  does  not 
have  some  hope  for  the  negro  and  believe  he  is 
making  substantial  progress,  he  would  be  hard  to 
convince. 

Physical  Needs 

Lastly,  we  should  study  the  problem  for  the 
sake  of  the  help  it  will  enable  us  to  render  a 


WHY   STUDY  THE   NEGRO  QUESTION?  21 

backward  race  in  its  hour  of  need.  These  needs 
are,  first  of  all,  physical.  So  long  as  millions  of 
these  people  live  in  the  one-roomed  cabin,  which 
is  poorly  ventilated,  poorly  heated,  and  not 
lighted  at  all ;  so  long  as  millions  more  live  in 
the  crowded  tenement  section  or  in  the  damp 
alleys  of  our  cities  in  houses  that  have  neither 
sanitation  nor  comfort ;  so  long  as  the  bath  tub  is 
almost  an  unknown  luxury  in  the  great  mass  of 
negro  homes;  so  long  as  four,  five,  or  even  ten 
negroes  are  sleeping  in  one  crowded  little  tene 
ment  room ;  so  long  as  the  death  rate  of  negroes 
is  from  eight  to  twelve  more  per  thousand  than 
that  for  white  people;  so  long  as  deaths  from 
venereal  diseases  among  colored  people  are  six  to 
seven  times  as  great  as  among  white  people — if 
the  Alabama  statistics  for  certain  periods  can  be 
trusted — and  so  long  as  the  negro  mortality  from 
consumption  in  many  of  our  leading  cities  is  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  in  advance 
of  the  corresponding  white  mortality — just  so 
long  will  the  Southern  white  man  have  an  obliga 
tion  to  study  these  facts,  find  their  causes,  and 
apply  cures. 

Intellectual  Needs 

The  next  great  need  of  the  negro  is  training. 
While  marvellous  progress  has  been  made,  forty- 
three  per  cent,  of  this  race  is  illiterate.  Even 
if  $155,000,000  has  been  spent  on  public 
schools  for  negroes  since  1870,  the  average  length 
of  school  term  has  never  been  and  is  not  now  over 
seventy  days  per  year1  According  to  the  report 

1  School  reports  for  the  present  year  make  a  much 
better  showing  than  this. 


22  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

of  the  Superintendent  of  Colored  Normal  Schools 
in  North  Carolina  for  the  year  1908,  the  average 
cost  of  public  school  buildings  used  for  negro 
schools  was  $124.37.  Out  of  2,198  such  build 
ings,  only  64  had  patent  desks — all  the  others 
being  furnished  with  simple  benches.  This  makes 
any  genuine  school  work  next  to  impossible.  In 
thirty  counties  in  this  State,  the  country  school 
teachers  were  paid  less  than  seventeen  dollars 
per  month  on  the  average,  and  in  these  counties 
there  were  59,665  negro  children  of  school  age, 
and  yet  it  is  a  known  fact  that,  in  proportion  to 
her  wealth,  North  Carolina  is  spending  more  than 
almost  any  other  State  in  the  Union  on  the  edu 
cation  of  her  youth.  Surely  the  knowledge  of 
such  facts  should  impel  us  to  do  more  for  gen 
eral  education.  In  addition,  there  is  the  greatest 
need  of  industrial  and  mechanical  education. 
According  to  a  computation  of  Thomas  Jesse 
Jones  in  the  "Southern  Workman,"  March,  1909, 
the  product  per  agricultural  worker  in  1900  was 
for  the  State  of  Iowa,  $1,088;  for  New  Hamp 
shire,  $477;  Alabama,  $150.98;  North  Carolina, 
$149.75;  South  Carolina,  $147.46,  or  the  Iowa 
worker,  largely  because  of  greater  skill,  is  able 
to  produce  more  than  seven  times  as  much  wealth 
annually  as  the  worker  in  South  Carolina.  We 
in  the  South  cannot  afford  to  allow  this  disparity 
of  wealth  producing  ability  to  continue.  There 
are  at  present  a  few  thousand  students  in  in 
dustrial  schools  like  Tuskegee  and  Hampton 
Institute.,  but  the  number  ought  to  be  multiplied 
ten-fold.  Who  will  see  that  this  is  done  if  we 
of  the  South  remain  ignorant  of  our  great  in- 


WHY   STUDY   THE    NEGRO   QUESTION?  23 

dustrial  need  ?  Why  leave  this  mass  of  humanity 
in  a  half- fed  and  half-starved  condition?  Why 
not  train  their  hands  and  their  heads  so  that  they 
may  not  only  secure  competence  for  themselves, 
but  z.dd  millions  annually  to  the  wealth  of  the 
section.  What  we  need  more  than  any  other  one 
element  in  our  Southern  industrial  life  is  trained 
laborers.  There  are  eight  million  negroes  in  our 
very  midst;  the  graduates  of  Hampton  and  Tus- 
kegee  have  forever  dispelled  the  doubt  that 
they  can  be  made  efficient  workmen  by  proper 
training ;  when  will  there  be  enough  of  construc 
tive  study  and  statesmanship  in  the  South  to 
harness  this  mighty  force  and  make  it  the  wonder 
of  the  world  in  its  wealth  producing  power? 

As  Mr.  Murphy  has  put  it :  "The  only  real  peril 
of  our  situation  is,  not  in  any  aspect  of  the 
negro's  wise  and  legitimate  progress,  but  rather 
in  the  danger  that  the  negro  will  know  so  little, 
will  do  so  little,  and  will  increasingly  care  so 
little  about  knowing  and  doing,  that  the  great 
black  mass  of  his  numbers,  his  ignorance,  his  idle 
ness,  and  his  lethargy  will  drag  forever  like  a 
cancerous  and  suffocating  burden  at  the  heart  of 
our  Southern  life,"1 

Moral  Needs 

Lastly,  one  must  mention  the  moral  needs  of 
the  negro.  While  forty-eight  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  colored  population  of  the  South  has  a 
church  affiliation,  and  while  $40,000,000  have 
been  invested  in  churches,  there  is  nevertheless  a 
terrible  moral  corruption  that  eats  at  the  vital* 

i'The  Present  South,"  p.  61. 


24  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

of  the  negro  race.  A  Christian  'negro  physician 
told  me  recently  that  ninety-eight  per  cent,  was 
a  low  estimate  for  the  negro  men  who  have  been 
socially  impure.  Cheap  whiskey  and  cocaine  are 
doing  their  deadly  work  for  literally  thousands  of 
negro  men  and  women.  Profanity,  gambling  and 
debauchery  are  everywhere  prevalent.  All  of 
these  vices  are  destroying  the  body  and  damning 
the  souls  of  countless  thousands.  Add  to  this 
the  fact  that  in  the  rural  churches  the  religion  is 
all  too  frequently  of  an  emotional  type,  which 
is  completely  divorced  from  ethical  action,  and 
the  further  fact  that  not  infrequently  the  minister 
is  himself  leprous  with  the  sins  of  laziness,  dis 
honesty  and  impurity  and  the  picture  darkens  un 
til  one  is  most  sick  at  heart. 

What  shall  we  do  about  such  crying  needs  as 
these?  Shall  we  close  our  eyes  and  remain  in 
blissful  ignorance?  Shall  we  waive  the  whole 
matter  aside  and  say  that  the  race  is  unworthy  of 
our  attention  and  effort  ?  Or  shall  we  fairly  face 
these  problems  and  do  our  part  in  bringing  to 
them  a  real  solution  ?  It  is  always  easier  to  close 
one's  eyes  to  the  hard  and  unpleasant  things  of 
life — but  is  it  always  manly?  No  man  has  ever 
been  a  prophet  to  humanityjwho  has  not  faced  the 
facts,  however  unpleasant.  He  who  is  not  will 
ing  to  bear  the  heartache  of  knowing  the  world's 
sorrow  and  suffering  and  sin  can  never  know 
the  joy  of  being  a  messenger  of  a  new  and 
brighter  day.  One  is  profoundly  sorry  for  that 
sweet  girl  graduate  who  went  home  with  her 
diploma  in  her  hand  after  hearing  a  commence 
ment  address  on  the  struggle  of  men,  and,  throw- 


WHY  STUDY  THE   NEGRO  QUESTION?  25 

ing  herself  into  a  chair,  said :  "Oh,  mother,  I  wish 
people  wouldn't  talk  so  much  about  the  struggles 
and  hardships  of  the  masses — it  makes  one  so  un 
comfortable." 

The  White  Man's  Obligation 

It  is  just  because  the  negro  is  ignorant;  just 
because  he  is  having  a  hard  battle  to  win  indus 
trial  competence ;  just  because  he  is  sinking  under 
the  burdens  of  awful  diseases;  and  just  because 
he  has  not  yet  attained  unto  the  full  stature  of 
moral  manhood  that  every  college  man  is  under 
obligation  to  know  and  better  his  condition.  It 
is  because  we  of  the  South  love  our  homes  and 
want  to  protect  them,  that  we  must  no  longer 
remain  ignorant  of  this  question.  It  is  because 
we  are  born  in  a  section  immortalized  by  such 
spirits  as  Lee  and  Jackson,  who  gave  their  lives 
for  its  welfare,  that  we,  in  this  hour  of  our  South 
land's  greatest  need,  will  not  prove  traitors,  but 
will,  with  the  hearts  of  true  sons,  bring  to  its  aid 
the  largest  knowledge,  the  sanest  judgment,  the 
clearest  thought  which  loyal  sons  can  bring. 


II 


THE  ECONOMIC  CONDITION  OF  THE 
NEGRO 


SLOW  THROUGH  THE  DARK 

Slow  moves  the  pageant  of  a  climbing  race; 

Their   footsteps  drag   far,   far  below   the   height, 

And,  unprevailing  by  their  utmost  might, 
Seems  faltering  downward  from  each  won  place. 
No   strange,   swift-sprung   exception   we;    we  trace 

A  devious  way  thro'  dim,  uncertain  light — 

Our  hope,  through  the  long-vistaed  years,  a  sight 
Of  that  our   Captain's  soul   sees  face  to  face. 

Who,  faithless,  faltering  that  the  road  is  steep, 
Now   raiseth   up   his   drear   insistent   cry? 

Who  stoppeth  here  to  spend  a  while  in  sleep, 
Or  curses  that  the  storm  obscures  the  sky? 

Heed  not  the  darkness  round  you,  dull  and  deep ; 
The  clouds  grown  thickest  when  the  summit's  high. 

— PAUL  LAURENCE  DUNBAR. 


II 


THE  ECONOMIC  CONDITION  OF  THE 
NEGRO 

Economic  Relationships 

To  treat  the  negro  from  the  economic  point  of 
view  strictly  would  be  most  difficult.  The  eco 
nomic  life  of  the  negro  is  so  peculiarly  and  so 
vitally  connected  with  many  other  phases  of  his 
life  that  it  is  necessary  to  touch  upon  much  that 
is  not  in  any  real  sense  economic,  in  order  to 
understand  his  peculiarities  as  an  economic  fac 
tor  in  our  complex  life.  To  understand  any 
phase  of  the  life  of  the  negro,  his  whole  life  must 
be  studied,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  in  Africa 
as  well.  The  negro  problem  never  can  be  under 
stood  at  all  adequately  in  this  country  until  we 
know  more  of  his  peculiar  racial  characteristics, 
which  can  be  learned  only  by  a  very  thorough 
study  of  the  negro  in  his  native  land.  Of  course, 
no  such  study  is  attempted  here,  but  is  merely 
suggested  as  a  prerequisite  to  a  proper  under 
standing  of  this  most  intricate  problem. 

The  Discussion  Tentative 

The  subject  matter  of  this  paper  is  not  meant 

to  be  taken  in  any  sense  as  authoritative,  though 

the  dogmatic  form  of  expression  is  sometimes 

used  for  the  sake  of  emphasis,     We  know  too 

29 


3O  NEGRO  LIFE   IN   THE  SOUTH 

little  of  this  problem  at  the  present  time  for  any 
one  to  speak  with  authority;  certainly  the  writer 
claims  no  such  right.  What  is  here  said  is  meant 
to  be  taken  as  only  suggestive.  A  fuller  knowl 
edge  of  the  subject  may  render  every  position 
here  taken  untenable.  But  if  this  study  proves 
suggestive  and  arouses  some  interest  in  a  more 
thorough  study  of  the  economic  phases  of  the 
negro  life  it  will  not  be  without  profit. 

African  Background 

The  negro  was  brought  to  this  country  as  a 
savage.  In  his  native  land  he  had  made  practi 
cally  no  progress  at  all  within  historic  times.  He 
was  thousands  of  years  behind  any  other  people  in 
the  world  that  could  be  called  in  any  real  sense  civ 
ilized,  and  his  manner  of  life  was  that  of  the  most 
ignorant  and  the  lowest  of  men.  "The  native  in 
East  Africa  is  untold  thousands  of  years  younger 
than  Abraham,  and  untold  thousands  of  years 
nearer  the  monkey  than  were  Abraham's 
Phoenician  kinsfolk,"  says  Dr.  W.  S.  Rainsford, 
who  has  recently  made  a  first  hand  study  of  the 
African  in  Africa. 

African   Slavery  and   its   Results 

The  negro  had  been  accustomed  to  slavery  be 
fore  he  was  brought  to  this  country.  In  Africa 
the  natives  held  each  other  in  slavery,  and  it  is 
said  that  this  slavery  was  of  the  lowest  grade  in 
morals.  It  was  of  such  a  nature  that  it  doubtless 
did  practically  nothing  in  giving  the  African  that 
training  in  systematic,  regular  work  which  he  so 
much  needs,  In  Africa  the  native  had  never 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION   OF  THE    NEGRO          3! 

0 

shown  the  least  capacity  to  grapple  successfully 
with  any  serious  problem  of  civilization,  and  he 
seemed  to  be  destined  to  move  indefinitely  in  that 
very  circumscribed  circle  fixed  for  him  by  his 
natural  environment.  His  life  of  carnage  and 
idleness  and  sensualism  and  pillage  had  paralyzed 
every  intellectual  faculty  and  had  developed  in 
him  a  roaming,  restless  disposition,  a  love  of 
excitement,  a  distaste  for  systematic  work  that 
made  him  incapable  of  any  advancement  under 
his  own  direction,  and  made  anything  like  self- 
mastery  impossible. 

American  Slavery 

The  first  cargo  of  slaves  was  landed  on  the 
Virginia  shore  in  1619.  They  were  brought  in 
by  the  Dutch  and  were  twenty  in  number.  At 
this  time  the  colonists  were  looking  to  the  in 
dentured  white  servants  to  supply  the  demands  of 
the  colony  for  extra  labor,  and  for  this  and  other 
reasons  but  few  slaves  were  imported  for  a  num 
ber  of  years.  In  1650,  thirty  years  after  the 
landing  of  the  first  cargo,  there  were  but  about 
three  hundred  slaves  in  the  colony  of  Virginia. 
But  after  the  middle  of  the  century,  on  account 
of  an  uprising  of  certain  of  Cromwell's  soldiers, 
who  were  sent  to  Virginia  as  indentured  servants 
after  Charles  II  came  to  the  throne,  the  Vir 
ginians  passed  a  very  stringent  law  against  the 
landing  of  any  one  who  had  been  convicted  of  any 
kind  of  crime,  political  or  otherwise.  This  law 
doubtless  affected  materially  the  supply  of  white 
labor  for  the  colony,  and  increased  the  demand 
for  slaves.  At  any  rate,  the  slaves  began  to  come 


32  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

% 

in  now  in  greater  numbers,  and  by  the  end  of  the 
century  the  slave  population  was  of  considerable 
size.  The  growth  of  the  slave  population  is 
shown  by  the  following  figures : 

Year.  Slave  Population  in  Virginia. 

1619  20 

1649  300 

1671  2,000» 

1700  6,000 

1715  23,000 

1763  150,000 

New  England  Slave  Traders 

The  slaves,  after  the  first  few  lots  that  were 
landed,  were  brought  to  this  country  in  large 
measure  by  New  England  ship  owners,  who 
traded  for  them  in  Africa,  and  sold  them  to  the 
Southern  planters.  The  shipping  industry  was 
developed  very  early  by  New  England,  and  the 
New  Englanders  found  in  the  slave  trade  a  thriv 
ing  business.  "During  the  Eigtheenth  Century 
a  three-cornered  trade  was  developed  by  New 
England,  by  means  of  which  molasses  was 
brought  from  the  West  Indies  to  New  England, 
where  it  was  manufactured  into  rum;  this  was 
taken  to  Africa  and  exchanged  for  slaves,  who 
were  sold  in  the  West  Indies  or  the  Southern 
colonies."1 

Economic  Basis  of  Distribution 

Slavery  was  in  vogue  in  all  of  the  American 
colonies,  but  from  the  beginning  the  great 

1  "Economic  History  of  the  United  States." — Bogart. 


ECONOMIC  CONDITION   OF  THE   NEGRO          33 

majority  of  the  slaves  were  placed  in  the  South 
ern  colonies.  The  forces  that  determined  the 
location  of  the  slaves  in  the  South  rather  than  in 
the  North  were  purely  and  exclusively  economic 
forces.  If  the  slaves  had  been  more  profitable  in 
New  England  than  in  the  South  they  would  have 
been  sold  there  and  kept  there.  New  England 
was  a  section  of  small  farms  and  small  farmers 
from  the  beginning,  while  the  Southerners  in 
considerable  numbers  farmed  on  a  large  scale 
almost  from  the  beginning.  This  does  not  mean 
that  farming  on  a  large  scale  was  the  rule  in  the 
South  at  any  time,  as  is  commonly  believed.  The 
great  majority  of  the  farmers  of  the  South  from 
the  beginning  were  small  farmers.  It  was  the 
enterprise  and  capacity  and  jDrogressiveness  of 
the  leading  men  of  the  South,  as  well  as  the- 
forces  of  the  nakiral  environment,  that  created  a 
relatively  stronger  demand  for  the  slaves  in  the 
Southern  colonies. 

Effects  of  Slavery  on  the  South 

Perhaps  no  other  phase  of  our  history  has  been 
so  persistently  and  so  violently  misinterpreted 
and  so  grossly  misrepresented  as  that  which  deals 
with  the  economic  effect  of  slavery  on  the  South. 
This  misrepresentation  is  not  due  to  the  prejudice 
engendered  by  the  struggle  between  the  two  sec 
tions  over  the  ethics  of  slavery,  as  may  be  be 
lieved  ;  at  least  this  is  not  the  chief  cause.  Southern 
writers,  as  well  as  Northern  writers,  tell  prac 
tically  the  same  story,  and  are  guilty  of  the  same 
misrepresentations.  The  trouble  is  not  prejudice, 
primarily,  but  ignorance ;  ignorance  not  only  of 


34  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

the  simplest  facts  bearing  on  the  subject,  but  of 
the  elementary  principles  of  economics  as  applied 
to  industrial  life. 

The  almost  universal  opinion  with  reference  to 
the  economic  effect  of  slavery  on  the  South  is 
well  expressed  in  a  recent  economic  history  of 
the  United  States  by  Professor  Bogart,  of  Prince 
ton  University.1  "While  the  country,  as  a  whole," 
says  Professor  Bogart,  "had  made  marvelous 
industrial  progress  during  this  period,  the  benefits 
were  confined  largely  to  the  North  and  West. 
The  great  advances  in  manufacturers,  in  agricul 
tural  improvements,  and  in  commerce  had 
scarcely  affected  the  South.  In  fact  the  South 
had  lagged  far  behind  the  North  in  the  indus 
trial  advance  of  the  previous  half  century.  The 
whirl  and  rush  of  this  progress  encompassed  the 
South  on  every  side.  Yet,  alone«in  all  the  world, 
she  stood  unmoved  by  it;  in  government,  in  so 
ciety,  in  employment,  in  labor,  the  States  of  the 
South  in  1860  were  substantially  what  they  had 
been  in  1810,  when  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade  had  impressed  upon  their  development  the 
last  modification  of  form  of  which  it  seemed 
susceptible." 

Southern  Progress  during  Slavery 

Notwithstanding  the  above  statement,  which  is 
the  opinion  of  practically  all  of  the  leading  his 
torians,  the  South  made  great  industrial  progress 
before  the  Civil  War.  The  South  had  consider 
ably  more  wealth  in  proportion  to  population  in 
1860  than  was  possessed  by  the  rest  of  the  coun- 

1  "Economic  History  of  the  United  States." — Bogart. 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION   OF  THE    NEGRO          35 

try,  counting  the  slaves  as  a  part  of  the  popula 
tion.  The  value  of  fanning  implements  in  use  in 
1860  was  one-seventh  greater  in  the  South  than 
in  the  Northern  and  Western  States  in  propor 
tion  to  population.  The  per  capita  value  of  farm 
ing  implements  in  Louisiana  was  more  than  three 
times  that  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  or  Ohio. 
The  South,  in  1860,  with  more  than  one-fourth 
of  the  free  population,  possessed  almost  as  many 
head  of  live  stock  as  the  remaining  States  of  the 
Union. 

Banking 

If  we  compare  the  South  with  the  North  and 
West  with  reference  to  banking,  we  find  that  the 
South  had  about  one-third  more  capital  invested 
per  capita  free  population  than  the  North  and 
West,  and  a  very  much  larger  proportion  of  loans 
and  deposits.  New  York  is  left  out  in  this  com 
parison,  since  New  York  belonged  as  much  to  the 
South  as  to  the  rest  of  the  country,  in  a  business 
way. 

From  1850  to  1860  the  increase  in  the  cash 
valuation  of  farms  was  as  follows: — 

The  Southern  States 129% 

The  New  England  States 27% 

The  remaining  States  of  the  Union..  102% 

Railways 

In  1860  the  South  had  more  miles  of  railroad 
than  the  rest  of  the  country  in  proportion  to  free 
population  and  the  percentage  increase  in  rail 
road  construction  from  1850  to  1860  was  as 
follows : 


36  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Southern  States 350% 

New  England  States 46% 

Northern  and  Western  States,  includ 
ing  the  New  England  States 320% 

Manufacturing 

In  1850  the  Southern  States  had  invested  in 
manufacturing  $90,615,214.  In  1860,  the  amount 
of  capital  invested  in  manufacturing  had  in 
creased  to  $159,496,572.  The  percentage  increase 
in  manufacturing  was  greater  for  the  South 
from  1850  to  1860  than  for  the  rest  of  the 
country.  In  1860  the  Southern  States  had  thirty 
cities  of  8,000  population  and  more,  with  a  com 
bined  population  of  999,947, 

Education 

In  1860,  the  South  was  spending  more  money 
for  education  in  proportion  to  her  free  popula 
tion  than  the  rest  of  the  country,  and  the  State 
free  public  school  system  which  originated  in 
the  South  had  made  great  progress,  and  millions 
of  dollars  were  being  spent  each  year  on  public 
school  education. 

A  glance  at  the  census  reports  for  1860  will 
show  that  the  South  was  in  the  very  forefront  in 
material  and  educational  progress  in  1860,  and 
that  the  general  opinion  of  the  life  of  this  sec 
tion  before  the  Civil  War  is  without  foundation. 

It  can  hardly  be  shown  that  slavery  interfered 
materially  with  the  economic  progress  of  the 
South,  and  it  is  very  probable  that  our  industrial 
progress  would  have  been  very  much  the  same 
as  it  is  to-day  had  slavery  continued. 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION  OF  THE   NEGRO          37 

Effect  of  This  Economic  Institution  on  the  Slaves 

What  was  the  effect  of  slavery  on  the  slave? 
There  is,  doubtless,  much  difference  of  opinion 
on  this  question,  but  perhaps  all  will  agree  that 
the  slaves,  as  a  whole,  received  great  benefit  from 
the  institution  of  slavery.  Slavery  was  essentially 
an  economic  institution,  not  a  philanthropic  enter 
prise.  The  slave  owners  were  men  of  average 
philanthropic  impulses,  it  is  believed,  and  doubt 
less  compared  favorably  with  any  other  body  of 
men  of  their  day  in  this  particular.  But  their 
chief  motive  in  buying  slaves  and  holding  slaves 
was  an  economic  motive,  just  as  the  chief  motive 
of  the  employer  of  free  labor  was  economic. 
Whatever  advantages  or  disadvantages  came  to 
the  slave  by  virtue  of  the  institution  of  slavery 
were  incidental,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the 
employment  of  free  labor.  By  this  it  is  not  meant 
that  economic  motives  always  controlled  in  the 
attitude  of  the  master  to  the  slave.  The  economic 
was  often  sacrificed  in  the  interest  of  humanity, 
and  it  is  probable  that  the  economic  was  oftener 
sacrificed  by  the  slave  owner  in  the  interest  of 
humanity  than  was  done  by  the  employer  of  free 
labor,  since  the  moral  obligation  of  the  slave 
owner  was  greater  than  that  of  the  employer  of 
free  labor. 

However  hard  hearted  and  commercial  the 
master  may  have  been  in  some  instances,  it  was 
against  his  economic  interest  as  a  rule  to  starve 
or  maim  or  materially  injure  his  slave,  and  in 
the  main,  slaves  were  well  cared  for  and  pro 
tected  from  injury,  just  as  men  care  for  and 
protect  their  stock  from  injury.  It  is  very  un- 


38  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

usual  for  the  class  of  men  who  owned  slaves  to 
injure  and  abuse  and  wilfully  mistreat  their 
horses  and  cows,  and  we  are  sure  that  the  econo 
mic  interest  of  the  slave-owner  protected  the 
slave  from  any  considerable  amount  of  inhuman 
treatment,  even  if  the  master  had  been  brutal 
by  nature. 

Slave  Ownership  a  Trust 

While  the  economic  was  the  chief  motive  in 
slave  ownership,  it  was  by  no  means  the  only 
motive;  and  there  is  abundance  of  proof  that 
many  masters  accepted  slave  ownership  as  a 
sacred  trust,  and  worked  hard  to  lift  the  slave 
to  a  higher  and  better  life. 

But  with  all  that  may  be  said  for  philanthropic 
effort  to  help  the  negro — and  surely  much  may 
be  said  in  its  behalf — it  is  probable  that  it  was 
far  better  for  the  negro  that  the  economic  motive 
controlled  in  slavery  even  with  the  accompany 
ing  hardships,  and  sometimes  gross  abuses.  It 
is  often  the  case  that  the  training  that  is  worth 
most  in  the  making  of  men  is  that  which  en 
lightened  philanthropy  would  not  choose.  The 
African  savage  needed  above  everything  else  just 
such  training  as  he  got  in  the  main  under  slavery 
in  this  country.  Any  other  than  such  a  vigorous 
and  such  a  positive  policy  as  the  individual  eco 
nomic  interest  of  slavery  demanded  would  not 
have  met  the  demands  of  his  nature.  While 
those  who  were  responsible  for  the  institution  of 
slavery  in  this  cowntry  deserve  no  special  credit 
for  these  incidental  and  accidental  effects  of 
slavery,  since  their  motives  were  chiefly  ceo- 


ECONOMIC  CONDITION  OF  THE   NEGRO          39 

nomic,  the  recognized  beneficent  effects  of  slav 
ery  on  the  negro  should  mitigate  that  criticism 
often  heard  against  those  who  defended  the  in 
stitution. 

Contact  with  Whites  First  Benefit  of  Slavery 

In  what  ways  did  slavery  benefit  the  negro?1 
First,  slavery  brought  the  negro  into  vital  touch 
with  Christian  civilization;  it  brought  him  in  a 
close  individual  relation  with  men  and  women 
who  were  the  heirs  of  all  the  ages.  His  removal 
from  the  environment  of  his  own  country  made 
it  much  easier  for  him  to  break  away  from  those 
forces  that  had  held  him  at  the  very  bottom  of 
human  society  for  untold  ages.  While  many 
negroes  lived  in  quarters  and  were  in  a  measure 
cut  off  from  much  association  with  the  white 
people,  the  great  majority  of  the  slaves  were  in 
close  and  continuous  touch  with  white  men  and 
white  women,  and  a  very  large  proportion  of 
them  lived  in  the  homes  of  the  whites,  and  thus, 
for  the  first  time  in  all  their  history,  got  a  con 
ception  of  Christian  home  life,  which  is  so  essen 
tial  to  the  uplift  of  any  people,  and  the  lack  of 
which  has  been  the  chief  weakness  of  the  negro. 
But  even  the  negroes  who  lived  in  the  big  negro 
quarters  were  never  separated  from  vital  contact 
with  the  white  man,  whom  they  had  an  opportu 
nity  to  observe  and  study  and  imitate  at  all  times. 

Segregation 

Second,  slavery  segregated  the  negroes  from 
each  other,  and  thus  gave  them  a  better  oppor- 

lCf.  "The  Negro  in  the  South."— Booker  T.  Wash 
ington. 


40  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

tunity  to  break  away  from  the  negro  influence 
and  substitute  the  influence  of  the  whites.  The 
common  idea  that  the  slaves  belonged  to  a  rela 
tively  small  number  of  big  slave  holders  is  not 
in  accord  with  the  facts.  About  one-fifth  of  the 
slave  holders  owned  only  one  slave,  and  a  major 
ity  of  the  slave  holders  of  the  South  owned  five 
or  less  than  five  slaves.  The  average  size  of  the 
family  being  about  five,  the  man  who  owned  five 
slaves,  owned,  as  a  rule,  one  man,  one  woman,  and 
three  children.  The  average  number  of  slaves 
held  by  each  owner  was  about  ten.  Slave  owner 
ship  in  the  South  was  really  very  democratic, 
and  it  may  be  truly  said  that  the  great  majority 
of  the  slave  holders  were  either  poor  men  or 
men  in  very  moderate  circumstances.  The 
negroes  for  the  most  part  segregated  into  small 
groups,  were  kept  away  from  the  excitement  of 
the  crowd,  and  were  given  an  opportunity  for 
individual  development  under  conditions  most 
favorable  to  the  peculiar  demands  of  their  nature. 
Regular  systematic  work  by  day  under  intelli 
gent  direction,  and  the  "patty  rollers"  by  night 
kept  the  negro  at  home,  and  prevented  him  from 
spending  his  nights  and  much  of  his  time  in  the 
day,  as  is  his  custom  to  do  now,  in  seeking  the 
deadly  poison  of  excitement  which  his  abnormal 
restless,  nomadic  nature  craves. 

Freedom  from  Excitement 

Third  the  slave  was  kept  on  the  farm  away 
from  the  excitement  of  the  city.  The  census  of 
1860  shows  that  very  few  of  the  one  million  in 
habitants  of  the  cities  of  the  South  were  slaves. 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION   OF  THE    NEGRO          4! 

More  than  900,000  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
cities  were  white.  No  other  place  could  have 
been  more  conducive  to  the  development  of  those 
characteristics  of  which  he  was  so  much  in  need 
as  the  quiet  country  life  of  the  rural  South.  But 
nothing  short  of  slavery  or  some  other  powerful 
outside  force  could  have  held  him  in  the  country. 

Systematic  Habits  of  Life 

Fourth,  slavery  forced  the  negro  to  work,  to 
work  hard,  to  work  systematically,  and  to  work 
continuously.  He  was  forced  to  live  systemati 
cally,  to  eat  and  sleep,  and  rest  systematically. 
All  of  this  was  absolutely  new  to  him  and  was 
contrary  to  every  inclination  of  his  nature.  Yet 
it  was  the  training  above  all  others  he  most 
needed.  It  was  the  lack  of  capacity  to  hold  him 
self  to  systematic,  regular  work  and  systematic 
regular  habits  of  life  that  constituted  his  chief 
weakness  then  as  an  economic  factor  and  it  is 
this  that  constitutes  his  chief  weakness  to-day. 
Perhaps  no  kind  of  philanthropic  effort  could 
have  given  him  this  training  of  which  he  was  so 
much  in  need  so  successfully  as  slavery.  Noth 
ing  but  slavery  with  the  economic  motive  in  con 
trol  could  have  succeeded  at  all  adequately,  it 
is  believed,  in  training  this  savage  nomad  to 
regular  habits  of  life  and  systematic,  continuous 
work.  On  this  point  it  is  interesting  to  note  the 
opinion  of  Dr.  W.  S.  Rainsford  of  his  recent 
studies  of  the  African  in  Africa:  "To  advance 
at  all,"  says  Dr.  Rainsford,  speaking  of  the  East 
African,  "he  must  be  firmly,  lovingly,  forced  to 
work,  kept  at  his  job,  for  his  own  strongest  de- 


42  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

fense  against  all  civilization  and  religion  is  the 
fact  that  at  heart  he  is  a  nomad  still.  .  .  .  For 
a  long  time  to  come  the  East  African  must  be 
firmly  and  wisely  made  to  do  what  he  ought  to 
do.  ...  The  opponents  of  forced  labor  in 
any  form  and  under  any  circumstances  wax 
ignorantly  eloquent.  But  outcries  do  not  alter 
facts.  The  man  who  is  not  fit  to  be  his  own 
master  must  be  put  under  the  mastership  of 
some  one  else  or  he  will  perish  from  the  earth. 
No  savage  ever  did  or  ever  will  in  any  age  or 
in  any  land  work  systematically  unless  obliged 
to." 

Intelligent  Supervision 

Fifth,  slavery  gave  the  negro  an  intelligent 
master,  and  this  above  all  other  things  was  his 
greatest  need.  He  had  shown  himself  absolutely 
incapable  of  self-mastery ;  and  it  is  far  better  for 
one  to  have  another  for  a  master  than  to  have 
no  master  at  all. 

Altruism  and  Loyalty 

Sixth,  slavery  developed  in  the  slave  to  a  very 
remarkable  degree  the  spirit  of  altruism  and  the 
spirit  of  loyalty  to  this  master.  It  can  hardly 
be  shown  that  slavery  was  ever  very  repulsive 
to  the  negro.  Of  course,  he  would  have  accepted 
freedom  gladly  at  any  time,  as  he  will  gladly 
accept  any  change  which  he  thinks  will  give  him 
larger  opportunities  to  satisfy  his  inordinate  de 
sire  for  excitement.  But  slavery  was  the  best 
life  he  knew,  and  the  freedom  from  care  and 
responsibility  which  it  gave  met  a  responsive 


ECONOMIC  CONDITION  OF  THE   NEGRO         43 

chord  in  his  soul.  He  took  great  pride  in  the 
system  of  which  he  recognized  himself  as  an 
essential  part;  and  he  respected  and  honored  the 
man  that  owned  slaves  and  felt  great  pride  in 
his  own  master's  success.  The  slave  abhorred 
with  the  utmost  contempt  the  white  man  who 
owned  no  slaves,  and  spoke  of  him  in  a  contempt 
uous  way  as  "poor  white  trash."  The  attitude 
of  the  negro  slave  to  slavery  and  to  his  master 
was  so  radically  different  from  what  the  attitude 
of  the  white  man  would  have  been  under  similar 
circumstances  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  us 
to  comprehend  the  feeling  of  the  negro,  and  we 
are  continuously  in  danger  of  misinterpreting 
the  negro  altogether  by  reading  into  his  acts  and 
motives  the  point  of  view  of  the  white  man. 
When  we  understand  his  peculiar  nature  and 
what  seems  his  peculiar  attitude  to  his  master, 
it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  slavery  de 
veloped  to  a  very  marked  degree  in  the  negro 
altruistic  traits  and  genuine  loyalty  to  his  mas 
ter's  family.  The  loyalty  and  devotion  and  un 
selfish  service  of  the  negro  to  the  family  of  his 
master  during  the  Civil  War  have  rightly  elicited 
the  admiration  and  praise  of  the  whole  world  for 
this  down-trodden  race.  The  splendid  traits 
shown  by  the  slave  in  the  time  of  peril  to  his 
master  and  to  his  master's  family  have  doubtless 
been  responsible  in  a  very  large  measure  for  the 
exaggeration  of  the  evils  of  slavery  to  the  negro. 
A  recognition  of  such  traits  doubtless  intensified 
the  feeling  of  disgust  on  the  part  of  many  that 
such  a  people  should  have  been  held  in  bondage 
at  all  by  another  race.  But  it  is  extremely  prob- 


44  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

able  that  these  very  commendable  traits  were 
almost  exclusively  the  products  of  slavery.  To 
understand  the  relation  of  slavery  to  the  develop 
ment  of  these  traits  in  the  negro,  compare  the 
negro  during  the  Civil  War  with  the  negro  who 
has  grown  up  since  that  time  in  this  particular. 

Lack  of  Loyalty  Since  Civil  War 

Would  the  white  women  of  the  South  be  safe 
to-day  surrounded  by  the  negroes  who  have 
grown  up  under  a  regime  of  freedom,  with  their 
husbands  and  brothers  and  fathers  away  in  a 
distant  battle  field?  They  hardly  feel  safe  with 
their  husbands  and  fathers  and  brothers  at  home. 
What  can  be  said  of  his  loyalty  to  his  employer 
— even  to  his  recognized  benefactor  to-day?  Is 
it  not  true  that  he  is  noted  for  his  lack  of  loyalty 
and  the  absence,  seemingly,  of  any  real  apprecia 
tion  of  gratitude  for  favors  shown  him  by  the 
white  people?  One  of  his  most  serious  defects 
in  the  industrial  field  is  the  fact  that  he  may 
leave  his  work  at  any  time  regardless  of  his  obli 
gations  to  his  employer  and  regardless  of  the  loss 
that  his  leaving  may  bring  to  his  employer.  As 
to  unselfish  service,  the  negro  of  the  present  day, 
with  some  few  exceptions,  seems  to  know  but 
little  of  this  virtue.  He  expects  to  be  paid  well 
for  everything  he  does  for  a  white  person,  and 
we  can  hardly  conceive  of  his  rendering  valuable, 
unselfish  service  to  the  whites  to-day  as  the 
negro  gave  during  the  Civil  War.  After  years 
of  training  under  slavery  the  negro  showed  him 
self  capable  of  keeping  sacred  a  great  trust  com 
mitted  to  his  hands  by  the  accident  of  war;  but 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION  OF  THE    NEGRO          45 

after  years  of  training  under  freedom  he  gives 
no  satisfactory  evidence  of  any  capacity  to  meas 
ure  up  to  such  responsibility  at  the  present  time. 

Mastery  of  Tools 

Seventh,  slavery  developed  the  negro  in  the 
use  of  tools,  and  gave  him  considerable  skill  in 
many  instances  as  a  worker.  Many  slaves  were 
trained  as  carpenters  and  blacksmiths  and  in  a 
number  of  other  skilled  occupations,  and  it  is 
probable  that  there  were  more  skilled  negro 
mechanics  just  after  the  war  in  proportion  to 
the  negro  population  than  to-day. 

Ethical  and  Religious  Training 

Eighth,  the  ethical  and  religious  training  the 
negro  received  under  slavery  can  hardly  be  ex 
aggerated  as  an  economic  factor  in  his  life.  He 
was  taught  the  difference  between  right  and 
wrong  by  the  white  man  and  the  white  woman, 
and  the  ethical  standards  of  the  white  man  were 
instilled  at  home  and  at  the  church;  for  the 
negro  then  attended  the  white  church  and  was 
taught  ethics  and  religion  by  the  white  preacher. 
His  ethical  and  religious  training  doubtless  had 
much  to  do  with  his  efficiency  as  a  worker;  for 
his  chief  trouble  in  the  industrial  world  has 
always  been  moral  deficiencies. 

Whatever  may  be  the  proper  condemnation  of 
slavery  as  an  institution  in  this  country,  and  what 
ever  may  have  been  the  injuries  it  brought  to  the 
South,  slavery  was  an  immeasurable  blessing  to 
the  negro,  and  did  more  for  his  real  advance 
ment  than  all  other  influences  combined.  The 


46  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

negro  race  should  never  cease  to  hold  as  one  of 
their  most  priceless  possessions  the  training  they 
received  under  the  regime  of  slavery  in  the  South 
ern  States. 

Dangers  of  Freedom 

The  effect  of  freedom  on  the  negro  from  the 
economic  point  of  view  is  a  question  on  which 
there  is  much  difference  of  opinion,  and  perhaps 
we  are  not  yet  far  enough  from  slavery  to  be  in 
a  position  to  measure  accurately  the  possibilities 
of  the  negro  as  an  economic  factor  in  our  modern 
life.  But  we  must  reason  on  what  data  we  have, 
and  hold  our  theories  subject  to  change  when 
more  light  demands  a  change. 

Freedom  was  not  an  exchange  of  outside  mas 
tery  for  self-mastery,  as  was  the  assumption  of 
emancipation,  but  an  exchange  of  outside  mastery 
for  no  mastery  at  all  in  many,  many  instances. 
The  shock  of  such  a  freedom  as  was  conferred 
on  the  negro  was  too  great  for  him  to  with 
stand  without  serious,  if  not  lasting,  injury  to 
himself.  Freedom  destroyed  the  mastery  and 
control  which  had  come  to  him  through  slavery, 
and  he  found  himself  incapable  of  building  up 
a  defense  from  within  that  would  meet  the  de 
mands  of  progress.  The  training  the  older  slaves 
had  received  under  slavery  was  sufficient  in  many 
instances  to  protect  them  against  the  dangers  of 
freedom,  for  it  is  very  true  that  the  child  trained 
up  in  the  way  he  should  go  in  the  industrial  field 
will  hardly  depart  from  it  when  he  is  old.  But 
it  was  very  different  with  the  younger  negroes, 
and  those  who  were  born  after  emancipation. 


OF  THE  \^ 

UNIVERSITY 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION   OF  THE    NEGRO          47 

These  were  allowed  to  follow  their  own  inclina 
tions  in  large  measure,  and  very  rapidly  they 
got  away  from  that  regular,  systematic  life  that 
did  so  much  for  their  fathers  under  slavery. 
Slavery  gave  splendid  training  to  the  individual, 
but  it  did  not  continue  long  enough  to  get  this 
character  into  the  fibre  of  the  race.  Hence, 
when  the  bonds  of  slavery  were  broken  and  the 
negro  was  freed  from  all  the  restrictions  that 
slavery  involved,  the  tendency  was  for  the 
younger  negroes  to  revert  to  the  old  type.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  can  survive  a  long  time  on  the 
capital  he  inherited  from  his  ancestors,  who  have 
been  in  training  in  the  school  of  self-mastery 
for  thousands  of  years.  One,  two,  three,  or  a 
half  dozen  generations  may  destroy  themselves 
by  the  abuse  of  freedom,  and  yet  when  a  child 
comes  forth  and  decides  to  make  something  of 
himself,  he  can  draw  on  the  capital  of  his  an 
cestors  and  begin  to  build  up  where  his  imme 
diate  progenitors  left  off.  But  the  negro  in 
herits  nothing  from  his  distant  ancestors  to  help 
him  in  the  struggle  for  self-mastery  and  suc 
cessful  competition  with  a  superior  race.  To  the 
extent  that  the  white  man  in  this  country  returns 
to  the  distant  type,  to  that  extent  he  gains  strength 
in  the  stubborn  virtues,  but  to  the  extent  that 
the  negro  returns  to  the  distant  type,  he  is  weak 
ened  for  the  rough  and  strenuous  struggle  of  our 
modern  industrial  life. 

Negro  Weaknesses    Moral 

The  chief  weakness  of  the  negro  in  his  struggle 
for  a  place  in  the-  modern  industrial  world  that 


48  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

will  guarantee  his  safety  and  progress  is  not  alone 
an  intellectual  weakness,  as  is  generally  believed, 
but  a  moral  weakness.  He  lacks  the  moral 
stamina  of  self-mastery,  of  self-control;  he  lacks 
the  capacity  to  sacrifice  the  present  for  the  future, 
the  capacity  that  is  essential  to  any  adequate  eco 
nomic  progress.  The  restless,  roaming  disposi 
tion  of  the  nomad,  and  the  abnormal  desire  for 
sensualistic  excitement  have  taken  possession  of 
him  again,  and  as  yet  he  has  given  little  evidence 
of  his  capacity  to  cope  successfully  with  these 
dangerous  enemies  of  his  life. 

Difficulties  of  Educational  Policy 

The  education  we  have  given  him  has  some 
times  done  more  harm  than  good  in  fitting  him 
for  the  only  sphere  that  holds  out  any  hope  to 
him  for  the  future.  Undoubtedly  the  education 
of  the  common  schools  has  done  much  to  lift  cer 
tain  individual  negroes  and  give  them  a  better 
life,  but  for  the  negro,  as  a  whole,  the  effect  of 
the  education  he  has  received  is  open  to  question. 
To  the  extent  that  it  has  educated  him  away 
from  the  pursuit  of  manual  labor,  it  is  believed 
that  it  has  been  injurious.  It  is  the  one  ambi 
tion  of  the  negro's  life  to  get  away  from  manual 
labor,  and  many  of  them  hope  that  education 
will  enable  them  to  do  this.  It  is  this  wrong 
ideal,  it  is  believed,  that  has  much  to  do  with  his 
inefficiency  as  an  industrial  worker.  The  indus 
trial  field  is  his  only  hope  for  a  place  of  perma 
nence  in  our  modern  life,  and  anything  that  tends 
to  divert  his  attention  and  ambition  to  other  fields 
does  him  a  real  injury;  it  not  only  leads  him  to 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION   OF   THE    NEGRO          49 

failure  in  other  fields  but  unfits  him  for  a  place 
in  which  he  might  succeed. 

Manual  Labor  Needed 

Unless  the  negro's  ideals  can  be  changed  with 
reference  to  manual  labor,  or  some  outside  com 
pulsion  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  him  to  hold 
him  to  the  work  that  gives  him  the  only  oppor 
tunity  to  develop  his  life,  it  is  very  questionable 
if  even  industrial  training  will  be  of  much  real 
service  in  solving  the  problem  of  tfie  negro  in 
this  country. 

Industrial  Training 

The  effects  of  industrial  training,  even  under 
the  most  favorable  conditions,  are  not  altogether 
encouraging  in  giving  a  substantial  hope  that 
such  education  will  be  successful  in  turning  the 
negro  from  professional  careers  to  the  pursuit 
of  manual  labor.  The  Tuskegee  Institute  under 
the  direction  of  Booker  T.  Washington  is  per 
haps  the  best  school  of  the  kind  ever  established 
for  negroes.  He  has  doubtless  gathered  into  his 
school  the  very  pick  of  the  negro  race,  for  the 
fact  that  a  negro  would  send  his  children  to  an 
industrial  school  rather  than  a  "university"  is 
proof  that  the  students  that  go  to  the  Tuskegee 
Institute  are  far  above  the  average  in  a  compre 
hension  of  the  true  sphere  of  the  negro  in  this 
country.  But  with  all  this,  and  with  the  in 
spirational  effect  of  the  strong  personality  of  the 
head  of  this  school  always  pointing  them  to  the 
industrial  field  as  their  best  opportunity,  the 
graduates  of  Tuskegee,  true  to  the  negro  nature 


5O  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

when  left  to  choose  and  follow  his  own  career, 
by  a  great  majority  follow  other  than  industrial 
pursuits  when  they  are  graduated.1  In  the  cata 
log  of  Tuskegee  some  years  ago,  giving  the  oc 
cupations  of  graduates  of  the  school  we  find  the 
following  : 

Painters   I 

Tinners    5 

Dairymen I 

Butchers    i 

Tailors   1 1 

Brickmasons    8 

Carpenters  4 

Dressmakers   2 

Harness  makers I 

Plasterers    I 

Shoemakers  2 

Wheelwrights  i 

Machinists  i 

Blacksmiths  3 

Milliners    4 

Firemen   i 

Artisans  48 

Teachers  of  trades  in  industrial  schools.  28 

Students  in  industrial  schools 2 

People  who  work  at  their  trades  when  not  em 
ployed  at  some  other  principal  occupation: 

1  In  another  chapter  one  reason  for  such  a  small 
number  of  these  men  entering  their  trades  has  been 
pointed  out,  in  that  the  demands  for  them  as  teachers 
in  industrial  and  other  schools  has  absorbed  fully  half 
of  them. — Editor. 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION   OF  THE    NEGRO  5! 

Carpenters  8 

Dressmakers  and  Seamstresses 16 

Blacksmiths  i 

Shoemakers  2 

Mattress  makers   I 

Wheelwrights    i 

Plasterers    I 

Painters i 

Printers    I 

Tailors   i 

Total 33 

Other  occupations  of  graduates: 

Cashier i 

Bookkeeper    I 

Teachers    157 

Students    31 

Pharmacists    4 

Physicians    8 

Preachers    1 1 

School  officials 9 

Other  professions 6 

Newspaper  work  2 

Civil  service   6 

Farmers    9 

Trained  nurses 7 

(This  includes  three  who  kept  house  also.) 

Railway  laborers   I 

Steward    I 

Laundresses    I 

Miners    3 

Draymen   I 

Merchants   .  6 


52  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Clerks    8 

U.  S.  Army 4 

Housewives  29 

It  is  hardly  sufficient  to  say  that  the  reason  so 
small  a  number  of  these  graduates  of  this  in 
dustrial  school  actually  follow  the  work  for 
which  they  were  trained  is  the  fact  that  the  pro 
fessions  offer  them  larger  incomes.  This  is  per 
haps  true  in  some  cases,  but  the  chief  motive 
that  prompts  the  negro  to  follow  a  "profession," 
although  he  has  been  thoroughly  trained  for  a 
trade,  it  is  believed,  is  his  natural  disinclination 
to  do  manual  work,  and  his  inordinate  desire  "to 
shine"  in  society. 

Per  Cent,  of  Trained  Workers  Following  Trades 

In  a  journal  issued  under  the  direction  of  the 
Negro  University  of  Atlanta  we  find  this  state 
ment  :  "Roughly  speaking,  it  has  cost  above  five 
millions  of  dollars  to  establish  the  industrial 
schools  and  send  out  a  thousand  workmen. 
.  .  .  In  one  case  only  six  in  every  hundred 
artisans  trained  are  following  their  trades." 

Low  Morals  and  Economic  Inefficiency 

In  the  negro  journal  mentioned  above  is  an 
article  from  a  negro  in  Texas.  That  the  negro's 
chief  difficulty  in  the  industrial  work  is  not  in 
tellectual  but  moral  is  emphasized  by  this  writer. 
"Many  of  our  young  men  who  do  follow  the 
trades  are  not  living  up  to  the  full  measure  of 
their  opportunities.  In  the  first  place  the  em 
ployer  cannot  always  depend  upon  them.  They 


ECONOMIC  CONDITION  OF  THE   NEGRO          53 

are  just  as  likely  not  to  come  to  work  at  the 
appointed  time  as  they  are  to  come.  It  matters 
not  how  busy  the  employer  may  be  or  how  anx 
ious  he  is  to  finish  the  job  our  young  workman 
feels  that  he  is  under  no  obligation  to  see  him 
through.  He  feels  free  to  take  a  day  off  and  to  go 
a -fishing  or  to  enjoy  himself  in  some  other  way. 
That's  his  idea  of  liberty.  When  the  next  negro 
workman  comes  along  and  asks  for  a  job  the 
contractor  says  'No,  we  don't  want  any  more 
negroes.'  Then  we  say  that  that  man  is  prej 
udiced.  I  used  to  think  so  too,  but  I  don't 
think  so  any  more.  I  have  hired  some  of  them 
myself  and  I  know  that  unreliability  has  kept 
more  negroes  out  of  good  jobs  than  incompe- 
tency  ever  did.  ...  I  do  not  mean  that  these 
general  statements  apply  to  all  our  workmen, 
but  I  do  say  that  they  will  apply  to  the  majority." 

Negro  Driven  Out  by  Competition 

The  negro's  lack  of  moral  qualities  more  than 
his  lack  of  skill  and  training  is  causing  him  to 
lose  out  almost  everywhere  he  really  comes  in 
competition  with  the  white  man.  In  the  cities 
where  the  negroes  are  more  and  more  congre 
gating  they  are  being  driven  out  from  every 
place  desired  by  a  white  competitor.  In  the 
northern  cities  where  white  people  concede  no 
sphere  of  work  to  the  negro,  but  compete  with 
him  at  every  point,  it  is  very  difficult  for  the 
negro  to  make  a  living  at  all,  and  this  is  doubt 
less  one  reason  we  find  so  much  more  crime 
among  the  negroes  of  northern  cities  than  among 
the  negroes  in  the  South. 


54  NEGRO  LIFE  IN   THE  SOUTH 

In  the  South,  certain  spheres  of  work  were  for 
a  long  time  given  to  the  negro,  and  in  these 
spheres  the  white  man  did  not  compete  with  him. 
But  this  is  changing  now,  and  the  white  man  is 
more  and  more  competing  for  this  work,  once 
considered  as  belonging  to  the  negro;  and  as 
the  white  man  comes  in  the  negro  gives  back, 
not  because  he  is  a  negro,  but  because  he  can't 
be  depended  upon  to  do  the  work  well.  The 
white  man  is  driving  him  out  of  the  barber's 
trade  and  now  the  Greek  boys  are  rapidly  driv 
ing  the  negro  out  of  that  business  upon  which 
he  had  an  exclusive  monopoly  for  so  long,  name 
ly,  the  shoe-shining  business.  The  negro  knows 
how  to  shine  shoes,  and  there  is  no  objection  on 
the  part  of  the  white  people  to  having  the  negro 
do  this  work.  But  the  negro  cannot  be  depended 
upon  to  give  as  good  service  as  the  Greek ;  hence, 
he  must  retire,  as  he  is  doing,  and  leave  the  field. 

Intermittent  Workers  Not  Wanted 

Under  modern  industrial  conditions  there  is  no 
place  of  importance  for  the  intermittent,  unrelia 
ble  worker.  Too  much  depends  on  each  man  being 
at  his  post  at  the  right  time  to  take  any  risks  with 
unreliable  labor.  Hence,  the  negro  is  forced 
back  more  and  more  to  that  class  of  work  which 
has  not  been  so  highly  specialized.  But  special 
ization  is  being  carried  into  almost  every  field  in 
the  city,  and  the  negro  must  improve  or  lose  out 
altogether  as  a  factor  in  the  industrial  life  of  the 
Southern  city. 

The  Negro  and  the  Cotton  Industry 

For  a  long  time  it  was  believed  that  the  negro 
was  essential  to  the  successful  production  of  cot- 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION   OF  THE    NEGRO          55 

ton  in  the  South.  But  this  position  is  no  longer 
tenable.  "The  President  of  the  Mississippi  Agri 
cultural  and  Mechanical  College  has  contributed 
something  towards  assisting  us  in  forming  an 
opinion  on  this  matter  of  efficiency,  in  a  study 
of  conditions  in  several  Mississippi  counties. 
Lowndes  County,  with  three  negroes  to  one  white 
man,  having  21,972  blacks  and  7,121  whites,  re 
quires  3.15  acres  to  make  a  bale  of  cotton,  while 
Jones  County,  with  three  whites  to  one  negro, 
requires  1.98  acres  to  make  a  bale.  The  farm 
lands  of  Jones  County  are  valued,  as  found  in  the 
census  reports,  at  $2.85  per  acre,  and  the  farm 
lands  of  Lowndes  County  are  valued  at  $9.83  per 
acre.  Yet  the  poor  lands  of  Jones  County  under 
intelligent  cultivation  produced  nearly  twice  as 
much  per  acre  as  the  rich  lands  of  Lowndes 
County  when  cultivated  mostly  by  negroes. 
Noxubee  County,  with  more  than  five  blacks  to 
one  white,  requires  3.50  acres  to  make  a  bale  of 
cotton,  while  Union  County,  with  three  whites  to 
one  black,  requires  only  2.56  acres  to  make  a 
bale.  The  farm  lands  of  Noxubee  County  are 
valued  at  $7.12  and  the  lands  of  Union  are  valued 
at  $4.81.  Hinds  County,  with  three  negroes  to 
one  white  man,  requires  2.50  acres  to  make  a  bale, 
while  Perry  County,  with  more  than  two  whites 
to  one  negro,  requires  only  1.96  acres  to  make 
a  bale.  The  farm  lands  of  Hinds  are  valued  at 
three  times  as  much  as  are  those  of  Perry.  In 
the  counties  Leflore,  Bolivar,  and  Washington, 
where  they  have  about  eight  negroes  to  one 
white  man,  but  almost  without  exception  the 
negroes  are  under  white  managers,  they  make  one 
bale  to  every  acre  and  a  half,  while  in  Lowndes, 


$6  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Noxubee  and  Monroe,  where  not  many  white 
managers  are  employed,  they  make  on  an  average 
about  one  bale  to  three  acres.  While  this  dif 
ference  is  partly  caused  by  a  difference  in  the 
fertility  of  the  two  groups  of  three  counties,  yet 
the  principal  difference  is  due  to  the  superior  in 
telligence  used  in  the  management  of  the  first 
group."1 

Italians  Supplanting  Negroes 

In  a  recent  book  on  the  "American  Race  Prob 
lem,"  by  Stone,  a  comparison  is  given  between 
negro  and  Italian  labor  in  the  cotton  fields  of 
Arkansas.  Certain  cotton  planters  in  this  section, 
purely  as  a  business  proposition,  employed  a  num 
ber  of  Italians,  together  with  a  number  of  ne 
groes  to  work  on  their  plantation.  The  Italians 
had  come  to  Arkansas  some  time  before  and  rep 
resented  a  number  of  heterogeneous  occupations 
instead  of  being  taken  solely  from  the  farming 
class. 

"The  number  of  Italian  squads  in  1898  (em 
ployed  on  this  plantation)  was  28,  with  200  work 
ing  hands,  cultivating  1,200  acres  of  cotton.  Of 
negro  squads,  there  were  203,  with  600  hands, 
cultivating  2,600  acres  of  cotton.  At  the  end  of 
1905,  after  eight  years,  there  were  on  the  property 
107  Italian  squads,  with  500  working  hands,  and 
38  negro  families  with  175  working  hands, — an 
increase  of  69  squads  and  300  hands  for  the  Ital 
ians,  a  decrease  of  165  squads  and  425  hands  for 
the  negro.  The  total  cotton  acreage  has  in 
creased  to  3,900,  of  which  the  Italians  are  cul- 

1  Stone :    "Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem." 


ECONOMIC   CONDITION   OF  THE   NEGRO  57 

tivating  3,000  acres  and  the  negroes  900.  This 
bare  statement  of  numerical  loss  and  gain  is  of 
itself  pregnant  with  meaning.  It  becomes  doubly 
significant  when  we  analyze  the  operations  of  the 
period  under  investigation.  Beyond  the  number 
of  families,  hands  and  acreage  the  details  for 
1898  are  not  available.  As  the  year's  business  for 
1905  is  not  yet  closed,  I  shall  eliminate  it  also. 
This  gives  us  a  six  year  period  for  a  comparative 
exhibit  of  the  two  classes  of  labor,  working  liter 
ally  side  by  side,  their  land  indiscriminately  al 
lotted,  each  on  the  same  tenure,  each  under  the 
same  conditions  of  soil,  climate  and  management. 
This  gives  us  the  following  results:  Average 
number  of  squads,  Italian,  5,  negroes,  167 ; 
average  number  of  working  hands,  Italians,  269, 
negroes,  433 ;  average  number  of  acres  per  work 
ing  hand,  Italians,  6.3,  negroes,  5.1 ;  average 
pounds  of  lint  per  hand,  Italians,  2,584,  negroes, 
1,174;  average  pounds  of  lint  per  acre,  Italians, 
403,  negroes,  233 ;  average  cash  product  value 
per  hand  (cotton  and  seed)  Italians,  $277.36, 
negroes,  $128.47;  average  cash  product  value  per 
acre,  Italians,  $44.77,  negroes,  $26.36.  Thus,  the 
Italian  is  seen  to  have  produced  more  lint  per 
hand  by  1,410  pounds  or  120.1  per  cent.,  and  to 
have  exceeded  the  negroes'  yield  per  acre  by  170 
pounds,  or  72.9  per  cent.  The  difference  in 
money  value  in  favor  of  the  Italian  was  $148.89 
per  hand,  or  115.8  per  cent.,  and  $18.41  per  acre 
or  69.8  per  cent.  It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  negro  was  cultivating  a  crop  with  which 
his  race  has  been  familiar  for  generations,  while 
the  Italian  had  r!°vnr  seen  a  stalk  of  cotton  before 


58  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

coming  to  America  only  a  few  years  ago.  Until 
shown,  they  did  not  even  know  the  difference  be 
tween  the  plant  they  were  to  save  and  the  weeds 
they  were  to  cut  out  in  the  process  of  cultivation. 
To  state  it  bluntly  and  coldly,  it  is  for  the  negro 
a  recital  of  conditions  as  old  as  his  freedom ;  too 
much  time  spent  out  of  his  crop,  and  away  from 
his  work;  too  much  waiting  for  the  weather  to 
improve;  too  much  putting  off  to  a  more  con 
venient  season ;  a  too  constant  and  too  successful 
besieging  of  those  in  authority  for  money  accom 
modations  and  supplies;  too  little  reckoning 
against  the  future  day  of  settlement;  too  much 
"leaning  on  the  Lord,"  and  too  little  upon  himself 
in  things  not  spiritual ;  too  much  living  for  to-day 
and  not  enough  for  to-morrow."1 

Negro  Must  Have  Special  Preparation  for  Economic 
Efficiency 

It  is  now  very  clear  that  the  negro  is  not  an 
essential  factor  in  any  single  sphere  of  the  life 
of  the  South,  though  as  yet  we  are  dependent  on 
him  for  the  mass  of  our  labor,  and  if  he  hold 
his  own,  or  if  he  hold  any  place  at  all  in  the  in 
dustrial  field  of  the  South,  he  must  prepare  him 
self  or  be  prepared  to  compete  with  the  white 
man. 

1  Stone;  "Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem." 


Ill 


HEALTH  AND  HOUSING  OF  THE 
NEGRO 


WE  WEAR  THE  MASK 

We  wear  the  mask  that  grins  and  lies, 
It  hides  our  cheeks  and  shades  our  eyes,— 
This  debt  we  pay  to  human  guile; 
With  torn  and  bleeding  hearts  we  smile, 
And  mouth  with  myriad  subtleties. 

Why  should  the  world  be  over-wise, 
In  counting  all  our  tears  and  sighs? 
Nay,  let  them  only  see  us,  while 
We  wear  the  mask. 

We  smile,  but,  O  great  Christ,  our  cries 
To  thee  from  tortured  souls  arise. 
We  sing,  but  oh,  the  clay  is  vile 
Beneath  our  feet,  and  long  the  mile; 
But  let  the  world  dream  otherwise, 
We  wear  the  mask! 

— PAUL  LAURENCE  DUNBAR. 


Ill 


HEALTH  AND  HOUSING  OF  THE 
NEGRO 

Test  of  Civilization 

The  surest  test  of  a  civilization  lies  not  in 
the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  people,  not  in 
the  degree  of  perfection  in  political  organiza 
tion,  not  in  its  educational  advancement,  and 
one  is  tempted  to  say  not  even  in  its  organized 
church  life.  All  of  these  are,  to  be  sure,  indices 
of  development,  but  the  surest  test  of  any  civil 
ization  lies  in  the  character  of  its  homes.  Any 
race  that  has  the  ability  to  build  up  and  keep 
sacred  the  institution  of  the  family  must  be 
counted  as  a  progressive  race.  The  past  history 
of  the  negro  has  not  been  very  encouraging  in 
this  regard.  Neither  in  Africa  nor  in  America 
during  the  days  of  slavery  did  he  know  the  true 
meaning  of  the  word  home.  It  is  much  to  the 
credit  of  the  negro  race  that  out  of  such  a  past 
he  is  slowly  but  surely  evolving  the  institutions 
of  the  family  and  the  home. 

Relation  of  House  to  the  Home 

In  this  process  of  evolution,  the  house  in  which 

he  lives  plays  no  small  part.     It  has  been  often 

and  well  said  that  a  palace   without  love  and 

ideals  is  not  a  home,  and  the  glory  of  the  one 

61 


62  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

room  cottage  where  love  reigns  has  been  sung 
by  poets  and  bards.  The  plain  truth,  however, 
is  that  one  room  gives  poor  opportunity  to  keep 
pure  and  sweet  the  love  that  once  entered  there, 
and  the  house  has  more  to  do  with  the  home  than 
some  poets  have  dreamed ;  and  surely  the  house 
has  a  most  vital  relation  to  the  health  and,  there 
fore,  to  the  morals  and  ideals  of  its  inmates.  If 
a  nation's  progress  can  be  measured  by  its 
homes,  almost  as  surely  can  the  state  of  the 
homes  be  measured  by  the  state  of  the  houses  in 
which  these  homes  are  made.  With  the  idea  of 
this  vital  relationship  in  mind,  let  us  study  the 
question  of  negro  housing. 

Housing  in  Slavery  Days 

During  the  days  of  slavery,  the  negroes  lived 
in  the  long  rows  of  log  cabins — mostly  one 
roomed — which  stretched  away  from  the  ''big 
house"  like  two  white  wings.  These  were  known 
as  the  slave  quarters,  and,  being  whitewashed, 
they  not  infrequently  gave  a  very  picturesque  ap 
pearance  to  the  old  plantation.  One  who  visits 
these  old  Southern  plantations  to-day  may  find 
the  remnants  of  the  slave  quarters  still  in  ex 
istence,  though  they  are  fast  tumbling  into  decay. 
In  these  early  days  of  the  South  most  of  the 
poorer  people  of  the  section  lived  in  these  one 
or  two  roomed  log  cabins;  however,  the  life 
therein  was  cheerless  and  without  comforts. 
Booker  T.  Washington  has  given  a  graphic  de 
scription  of  this  life  in  his  "Up  from  Slavery": 
'There  was  a  door  to  the  cabin — that  is,  some 
thing  that  was  called  a  door — but  the  uncertain 


HEALTH  AND   HOUSING  OF  THE   NEGRO         63 

hinges  by  which  it  was  hung,  and  the  large 
cracks  in  it,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  it 
was  too  small,  made  the  room  a  very  uncomfort 
able  one.  In  addition  to  these  openings  there 
was,  in  the  lower  right-hand  corner  of  the  room, 
the  'cat-hole,' — a  contrivance  which  almost  every 
mansion  or  cabin  in  Virginia  possessed  during 
the  ante-bellum  period.  The  'cat-hole'  was  a 
square  opening,  about  seven  by  eight  inches,  pro 
vided  for  the  purpose  of  letting  the  cat  pass 
in  and  out  of  the  house  at  will  during  the  night. 
In  the  case  of  our  particular  cabin  I  could  never 
understand  the  necessity  for  this  convenience, 
since  there  were  at  least  a  half-dozen  other  places 
in  the  cabin  that  would  have  accommodated  the 
cats.  There  was  no  wooden  floor  in  our  cabin, 
the  naked  earth  being  used  as  a  floor.  In  the 
center  of  the  earthen  floor  there  was  a  large, 
deep  opening  covered  with  boards,  which  was 
used  as  a  place  in  which  to  store  sweet  potatoes 
during  the  winter.  .  .  . " 

This  picture  drawn  by  Washington  is  much 
more  dreary  than  the  average  cabin  would 
justify;  for  usually  there  was  a  board  floor  and 
somewhat  better  doors.  Life  in  slave  quarters, 
however,  was  poor  at  the  best. 

Country  Housing 

The  housing  conditions  of  the  negro  farmer 
have  not  changed  since  slavery  nearly  so  much 
as  one  would  wish,  nor  as  one  might  reasonably 
expect.  I  have  traveled  through  the  country  in 
almost  every  section  of  the  South,  and  the  negro 
farm  houses  consist  usually  of  one,  two,  or  three 


64  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

rooms,  poorly  furnished,  poorly  kept,  with  no 
pictures,  and  with  the  barest  necessities  for  liv 
ing.  Professor  DuBois  has  made  some  study  of 
a  typical  slave  county  —  Dougherty  County, 
Georgia.  His  word  about  conditions  of  housing 
is  rather  pessimistic  but  is  doubtless  not  much 
overdrawn:  "The  form  and  disposition  of  the 
laborers'  cabins  throughout  the  Black  Belt 
is  to-day  the  same  as  in  slavery  days.  Some 
live  in  the  self-same  cabins,  others  in  cabins  re 
built  on  the  sites  of  the  old.  All  are  sprinkled 
in  little  groups  over  the  face  of  the  land,  center 
ing  about  some  dilapidated  Big  House  where  the 
head-tenant  or  agent  lives.  The  general  char 
acter  and  arrangement  of  these  dwellings  re 
mains  on  the  whole  unaltered.  There  were  in 
the  country,  outside  the  corporate  town  of  Al 
bany,  about  fifteen  hundred  negro  families  in 
1898.  Out  of  all  these,  only  a  single  family  oc 
cupied  a  house  with  seven  rooms;  only  fourteen 
have  five  rooms  or  more.  The  mass  live  in  one- 
and  two-room  houses." 

"The  size  and  arrangements  of  the  people's 
homes  are  no  unfair  index  of  their  condition. 
If,  then,  we  inquire  more  carefully  into  these 
negro  homes,  we  find  much  that  is  unsatisfac 
tory.  All  over  the  face  of  the  land  is  the  one- 
room  cabin — now  standing  in  the  shadow  of  the 
Big  House,  now  staring  at  the  dusty  road,  now 
rising  dark  and  sombre  amid  the  green  of  the 
cotton-fields.  It  is  nearly  always  old  and  bare, 
built  of  rough  boards,  and  neither  plastered  nor 
ceiled.  Light  and  ventilation  are  supplied  by 
the  single  door  and  by  the  square  hole  in  the 
wall  with  its  wooden  shutter.  There  is  no  glass, 


HEALTH  AND   HOUSING  OF  THE   NEGRO         65 

porch,  or  ornamentation  without.  Within  is  a 
fireplace,  black  and  smoky,  and  usually  unsteady 
with  age.  A  bed  or  two,  a  table,  a  wooden  chest, 
and  a  few  chairs  compose  the  furniture ;  while  a 
stray  show-bill  or  a  newspaper  makes  up  the 
decorations  for  the  walls.  Now  and  then  one 
may  find  such  a  cabin  kept  scrupulously  neat, 
with  merry  steaming  fireplace  and  hospitable 
door,  but  the  majority  are  dirty  and  dilapidated, 
smelling  of  eating  and  sleeping,  poorly  venti 
lated,  and  anything  but  homes." 

"Above  all,  the  cabins  are  crowded.  We  have 
come  to  associate  crowding  with  homes  in  cities 
almost  exclusively.  This  is  primarily  because 
we  have  so  little  accurate  knowledge  of  coun 
try  life.  Here  in  Dougherty  county  one  may 
find  families  of  eight  and  ten  occupying  one  or 
two  rooms,  and  for  every  ten  rooms  of  house  ac 
commodation  for  the  negroes  there  are  twenty- 
five  persons.  The  worse  tenement  abominations 
of  New  York  do  not  have  above  twenty-two 
persons  for  every  ten  rooms.  Of  course,  one 
small,  close  room  in  a  city,  without  a  yard,  is 
in  many  respects  worse  than  the  larger  single 
country  room.  In  other  respects  it  is  better; 
it  has  glass  windows,  a  decent  chimney,  and  a 
trustworthy  floor.  The  single  great  advantage 
of  the  negro  peasant  is  that  he  may  spend  most 
of  his  life  outside  his  hovel  in  the  open  fields."1 

City  Housing 

The  conditions  of  houses  in  themselves  are  but 
little  more  inviting  in  the  cities.  In  an  investi 
gation  of  1,137  negro  families  made  under  di- 

1  "Souls  of  Black  Folks,"  pp.  138-140. 


66  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

rection  of  Atlanta  University  in  1897  it  was 
found  that  117  families  lived  in  single-room 
houses,  276  lived  in  two-roomed  houses,  308 
families  occupied  three  rooms  each,  197  had  four 
rooms  each,  112  had  five  rooms,  122  had  more 
than  five  rooms, — and  the  average  number  of 
occupants  for  all  rooms  was  2.22  persons.  In  a 
study  of  the  Philadelphia  negro  in  1899  it  was 
found  that  in  the  seventh  ward  alone  829  fam 
ilies,  or  35  per  cent,  of  the  negro  families  of  the 
ward,  occupied  just  one  room  to  the  family. 
It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  for  one  in  passing 
through  the  poorer  negro  section  to  see  a  sign, 
"sleepers  wanted,"  tacked  on  the  front  of  a  two- 
or  three-roomed  house  occupied  by  a  family  of 
from  two  to  six  persons.  One  house  visited  had 
a  shed-room,  used  for  a  dining-room  and  kitchen, 
and  two  front  rooms.  In  these  two  front  rooms 
the  negro  man,  his  wife,  and  three  grown 
daughters  lived,  and  they  took  three  "men  sleep 
ers"  into  the  house.  Another  house  visited  had 
two  rooms — one  used  for  kitchen,  dining-room 
and  laundry-room.  The  wife  made  the  living 
by  taking  in  washing.  In  the  other  room — one 
without  a  ray  of  sunlight — lived  this  woman, 
her  invalid  husband,  and  two  children.  In  these 
houses  one  almost  never  finds  a  bath-room  and 
almost  as  seldom  finds  a  toilet.  In  the  investi 
gation  by  Atlanta  University,  of  the  1,031  houses 
visited  only  43,  or  4  per  cent.,  had  bath  tubs. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  among  this  class  of  ne 
groes — the  ignorant  day-laboring  class — this 
percentage  of  bath  tubs  is  fully  up  to  the  average. 


HEALTH   AND  HOUSING  OF  THE   NEGRO         67 

Unfavorable  Location 

These  negro  homes  have  the  additional  dis 
advantage  of  being  located  in  the  lower,  damper, 
and  more  disagreeable  parts  of  the  city.  In  At 
lanta,  as  an  illustration,  there  are  large  negro 
settlements  in  the  lower  parts  of  Houston  Street, 
and  in  the  more  undesirable  parts  of  West  At 
lanta.  In  Nashville,  the  lowlands  between  the 
central  part  of  the  city  and  the  residence  section 
of  South  Nashville,  known  as  "Black  Bottom," 
is  tenanted  by  negroes.  So  one  could  go  through 
the  list  of  almost  every  Southern  city,  and  the 
facts  are  always  the  same. 

Still  further,  these  houses  are  undesirable, 
because  they  are  largely  located  on  the  alleys 
rather  than  the  streets.  Mr.  H.  Paul  Douglass 
says :  "I  know  a  Charleston  alley  lined  with  thirty- 
two  negro  tenement  houses.  In  the  midst  of  the 
alley,  its  sole  source  of  water  supply  is  an  open 
dipping  well,  surrounded  by  a  sixteen-inch  curb. 
On  this  curb  all  the  people  of  the  thirty-two 
houses  do  their  washing,  etc."1  This  means  that 
these  homes  have  absolutely  no  yard  space,  that 
they  have  a  most  dreary  outlook,  that  they  are 
surrounded  by  all  sorts  of  unsightly  trash,  and 
that  the  air  is  not  infrequently  ladened  with  foul 
odors.  It  would  be  hard  for  any  people  to  make 
homes  in  such  houses.  It  would  be  hard  to  es 
timate  just  what  would  be  the  deteriorating  effect 
of  removing  from  the  homes  of  our  white  people 
every  flower,  every  tree,  every  blade  of  grass, 
and  yet  that  is  what  has  happened  for  the  mass  of 
the  negro  working-men.  Professor  DuBois,  in  his 

1  "Christian  Reconstruction  in  the  South,"  p.  177. 


68  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

study  of  the  Philadelphia  negro,  gives  the  fol 
lowing  figures:  Of  the  1,751  families  making 
returns,  932  had  a  private  yard  12x12  feet,  or 
larger;  312  had  a  private  yard  smaller  than 
12x12  feet ;  507  had  either  no  yard  or  a  yard  and 
outhouse  in  common  with  the  other  denizens  of 
the  tenement  or  alley.1 

Yet  again  the  homes  of  a  large  number  of 
negroes  are  located  down  in  the  heart  of  the 
city  in  the  old  houses  long  since  abandoned  by 
white  people,  or  in  those  sections  of  the  town 
where  railroads,  factories,  etc.,  have  made  living 
undesirable. 

Lastly,  these  houses  are  often  old  and  are  kept 
in  poor  repair.  If  it  were  not  for  the  high  rental 
which  they  command  they  would  be  torn  down  to 
give  place  for  better  structures. 

Exorbitant  Rentals 

Now  the  negro  not  only  puts  up  with  these 
miserable  houses  and  bad  locations,  but  he  fre 
quently  pays  an  exorbitant  rent.  I  have  asked 
a  good  number  of  landlords  why  they  do  not 
tear  away  the  old  negro  houses  and  build  decent 
tenements,  and  the  usual  reply  is  that  the  pres 
ent  investment  brings  a  larger  dividend.  Fifteen 
to  twenty  per  cent,  dividends  is  not  thought  to 
be  exorbitant  from  such  rentals.  In  many 
of  the  very  worst  sections  of  Negrotown  in 
Nashville,  rooms  rent  for  two  dollars  per  week. 
If  a  woman  who  is  a  cook,  working  for  twelve 
dollars  per  month,  has  only  one  room,  she  will 
pay  a  half  to  two-thirds  of  her  income  for  the 

l"The  Philadelphia  Negro,"  p.  293. 


HEALTH  AND  HOUSING  OF  THE  NEGRO        69 

rent  of  a  miserable  hovel.  In  a  recent  investiga 
tion  made  in  the  city  of  Nashville,  out  of  12,579 
females  over  fifteen  years  of  age,  5,595  were  em 
ployed  as  laundresses,  cooks,  house  girls,  and 
child  nurses, — the  average  salary  for  which  serv 
ices  ranged  from  eight  to  fifteen  dollars  per 
month.  Unless  these  women  had  other  support 
than  that  of  their  own  labor,  they  would  have  a 
bare  pittance  on  which  to  live  after  paying  room 
rent.  There  is  no  wonder  they  resort  to  stealing 
and  even  worse  crimes. 

Why  Negroes  Accept  These  Conditions 

There  are  two  reasons  why  negroes  will  con 
tinue  to  live  in  these  unsanitary  houses  in  the 
worst  sections  of  the  city.  In  the  first  place, 
the  great  majority  of  negroes  are  engaged  in 
personal  services,  such  as  that  of  cooks,  waiters, 
and  waitresses,  butlers,  drivers,  nurses,  etc.  This 
necessitates  their  being  as  near  their  work  as 
possible.  In  the  second  place,  the  strong  social 
nature  of  the  negro  calls  for  constant  compan 
ionship.  He  wants  to  be  where  he  can  see  many 
others  of  his  kind.  He  does  not  want  to  be 
isolated.  Where  there  are  many  congregated, 
there  can  be  some  constant  amusement.  The 
organ  grinder,  the  medicine  man,  the  street 
preacher — all  of  these  flourish  in  the  thickly 
populated  sections  of  the  negro  district,  and  to 
miss  these  things  would  be  not  to  live.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  people  living  far  out  in  the  sub 
urbs  of  a  city  find  it  difficult  to  keep  negro 
servants,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  good  servants' 
quarters  are  furnished.  Thousands  of  negroes 


70  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

thus  live  in  crowded  and  unsanitary  tenement 
houses  on  the  back  alleys  of  the  city  rather  than 
live  out  in  the  suburbs  where  they  might  have 
fresh  air  and  sunshine,  cheaper  rent  and  a  yard 
with  a  garden. 

The  barest  recital  of  facts  such  as  these  con 
vinces  one  that  the  negro  does  not  have  a  chance. 
He  has  had  so  little  and  has  grown  accustomed  to 
so  little  that  there  is  danger  lest  he  will  not  ever 
want  any  better  than  he  has.  To  increase  his 
wants,  to  make  him  see  the  blessings  of  better 
houses,  and  more  air  and  sunshine — this  is  a 
staggering  task. 

The  Better  Class  of  Houses 

And,  yet,  we  must  not  pass  without  giving 
something  of  the  brighter  side  of  the  picture. 
We  are  reminded  of  the  126,329  negro  homes 
free  of  debt  and  owned  by  negroes.  We  must 
remember  that  more  and  more  the  negro  is  oc 
cupying  whole  sections  of  our  cities  and  is  mak 
ing  such  sections  beautiful  and  attractive.  Re 
cently,  I  went  through  that  section  of  Atlanta 
near  Atlanta  University  where  are  to  be  found 
the  homes  of  the  better  class  of  negroes.  The 
streets  were  clean,  the  yards  were  green  and 
well  kept,  there  were  plenty  of  shade  trees,  and 
most  of  the  houses  had  from  four  to  eight 
rooms.  They  were  well  painted  and  one  would 
hardly  have  known  that  it  was  not  a  white  set 
tlement.  Just  out  by  the  University,  I  saw  the 
handsome  new  residence  of  the  leading  negro 
barber  of  the  city, — a  brick  edifice  costing  more 
than  twenty-five  thousand  dollars.  Nor  is  this 
an  isolated  case.  There  are  such  negro  settle- 


HEALTH  AND  HOUSING  OF  THE  NEGRO         71 

ments  in  Chattanooga,  Nashville,  and  many  other 
cities  that  I  have  visited. 

Relation  of  Health  to  Housing 

In  view  of  what  has  preceded,  one  may  expect 
the  health  of  the  negro  to  be  below  that  of  the 
white  man.  And  such  is  evidently  the  case.  Con 
trary  to  the  idea  of  the  casual  observer,  the  ne 
gro  has  less  of  endurance,  and  his  death  rate 
is  higher  than  that  of  the  white  man.  "The  vital 
ity  of  the  negro,"  says  Hoffman,1  "may  well 
be  considered  the  most  important  phase  of  the 
so-called  race  problem;  for,  it  is  a  fact  which 
can,  and  will,  be  demonstrated  by  indisputable 
evidence,  that  of  all  races  for  which  statistics 
are  obtainable,  and  which  enter  at  all  into  the 
consideration  of  economic  problems  as  factors, 
the  negro  shows  the  least  power  of  resistance  in 
the  struggle  for  life."  Mr.  Hoffman  thinks  that 
ihis  physical  weakness  of  the  race  presages  ex 
termination  unless  such  weakness  can  be  over 
come,  while  others  take  an  opposite  view  and 
claim  that  the  birth  rate  will  easily  keep  in  ad 
vance  of  the  death  rate. 

High  Death  Rate  of  Negroes 

In  Washington,  for  the  year  1890,  the  vital 
statistics  for  white  and  colored  showed  a  rela 
tive  number  of  deaths  of  67.07  whites  to  141.69 
colored;  and  for  the  same  year  the  figures  for 
Baltimore  stood  67.19  whites  to  121.55  colored; 
or,  in  other  words,  the  negroes  in  these  two 

1  "Race  Traits  and  Tendencies  of  the  American  Ne 
gro,"  p.  37.  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  this  student  of 
the  negro  for  many  of  the  facts  in  this  chapter. 


72  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

cities  that  year  were  twice  as  unhealthy  as  the 
white  people.  In  the  cities  of  Atlanta,  Memphis, 
Charleston,  and  Richmond,  the  death  rates  for 
the  years  1881-1895  were  as  follows :  Atlanta,  18.5 
whites  to  34.7  colored;  Memphis,  20.6  whites  to 
31.2  colored;  Charleston,  23.2  white  to  44  col- 
cied;  Richmond,  20.7  white  to  38  colored. 
Among  these  cities  the  comparative  death  rate 
most  favorable  to  the  negro  was  in  Memphis, 
where,  for  every  two  white  deaths  per  thousand 
of  population,  there  were  three  colored  deaths; 
and  the  least  favorable  comparative  death  rate 
was  in  Atlanta,  where,  for  every  five  white  deaths 
per  thousand  population,  there  were  nine  colored 
deaths.  Without  wearying  the  reader  with  the 
statistics,  it  may  be  stated  that  both  the  white 
death  rate  and  colored  death  rate  in  all  these  cities 
decreased  greatly  between  1881  and  1895,  but 
the  decrease  of  the  white  death  rate  was  greater 
than  that  of  the  colored,  hence  at  the  end  of  the 
period  the  latter  still  stands  about  70  per  cent, 
in  advance  of  the  former.  It  may  be  said  also 
that  the  statistics  of  the  last  census  and  such 
other  local  statistics  as  are  available  up  to  the 
present  year,  seem  to  indicate  that  this  disparity 
is  probably  larger  now  than  it  was  in  1895.  In 
deed,  a  number  of  students  of  the  question  have 
put  the  death  rate  per  thousand  of  each  race  as 
two  to  one  in  favor  of  the  white  man. 

Causes  of  Excessive  Death  Rate 

The  chief  causes  of  this  excessive  death  rate 
among  negroes  seem  to  be  infant  mortality,  con 
sumption,  scrofula,  venereal  troubles,  and  in 
testinal  diseases.  It  will  be  noted  that  all  of 


HEALTH   AND   HOUSING  OF  THE   NEGRO         73 

these  are  what  may  be  called  constitutional  dis 
eases,  that  is,  either  the  disease  or  else  the  weak 
ness  which  makes  the  subject  an  easy  prey,  may 
be  inherited.  Hoffman  sums  up  a  number  of  sta 
tistical  tables  as  giving  "evidence  that  environ 
ment  has  less  effect  on  the  duration  of  life  than 
have  the  factors  of  race  and  heredity."1 

Infant  Mortality 

The  infant  mortality  among  the  peoples  in 
America  is  alarmingly  high.  Too  little  atten 
tion  has  been  paid  in  the  past  to  the  feeding 
and  care  of  infants.  Among  the  colored  people 
this  mortality  is  still  further  marked.  As  illus 
trations  of  this  fact,  the  following  statistics  for 
the  year  1890  may  be  cited:  New  Orleans,  1,290 
colored  births,  555  of  which  children  died  before 
one  year  of  age,  or  a  death  rate  of  430.2  per  thou 
sand;  Charleston,  758  births,  350  of  whom  died 
under  one  year  of  age,  or  a  rate  of  461.7;  Rich 
mond,  625  births,  331  deaths,  death  rate  of  in 
fants,  529.6  per  thousand.  In  other  words,  of 
every  two  colored  children  born  only  one  lives  to 
be  one  year  old.  This  is  a  death  plague  almost 
like  that  visited  upon  the  children  of  Egypt  by 
the  destroying  angel. 

Neglect  of  Children 

For  this  alarming  infant  mortality  there  are 
three  chief  causes :  First,  the  mother  works  out 
and  must  leave  the  infant  in  the  care  of  other 
children  who  are  too  young  to  give  it  proper  at 
tention.  According  to  statistics  quoted  before, 
44  per  cent,  of  the  negro  women  in  Nashville 

"Race  Traits  and  Tendencies,"  p.  51. 


74  NEGRO  LIFE   IN  THE  SOUTH 

over  fifteen  years  of  age  are  employed  as  laun 
dresses,  cooks,  housemaids,  and  child  nurses, 
which  means  that  in  most  cases  they  must  leave 
their  own  children  without  proper  care  during 
the  day.  It  may  also  be  added  that  the  medical 
care  given  to  negro  children  is  altogether  in 
adequate.  Thousands  of  them  die  without  ever 
being  seen  by  a  physician.  Here  is  a  crying  need 
for  more  trained  negro  physicians  who  can,  and 
will,  meet  this  need  of  humanity.  These  facts 
will  undoubtedly  account  for  much  of  this  ex 
cessive  infant  mortality.  As  to  the  other  great 
causes  of  high  death  rate  among  infants,  let  a 
negro  speak,  lest  we  shall  be  charged  with  unfair 
judgment.1 

Immorality  and  Child  Diseases 

"There  is  one  obstacle  in  the  race's  reproduc 
ing  itself  that  has  some  connection  with  venereal 
diseases  and  hence  I  speak  of  it  now.  I  refer  to  the 
enormous  amount  of  still  births  and  infant  mor 
tality  prevalent  everywhere  among  colored  peo 
ple.  For  the  period  of  1893-95,^6  still  and  prema 
ture  births  in  the  city  of  Nashville  were  272  for 
the  white,  and  385  for  the  colored ;  or,  in  propor 
tion  to  the  population,  two  and  one-third  times  as 
many  as  there  ought  to  have  been.  This  relative 
state  of  affairs  obtains  in  Memphis  and  Atlanta, 
and  in  all  the  large  cities  of  the  South.  From  the 
health  reports  of  all  our  large  Southern  cities  we 
learn  that  a  considerable  amount  of  our  infant 
mortality  is  due  to  inanition,  infantile  debility, 
and  infantile  marasmus.  Now,  what  is  the  case 

1  "Social  and  Physical  Conditions  of  Negroes  in 
Cities,"  p.  24. 


HEALTH   AND  HOUSING  OF  THE   NEGRO         75 

in  regard  to  these  diseases?  The  fact  is  that 
they  are  not  diseases  at  all,  but  merely  the  names 
of  symptoms  due  to  enfeebled  constitutions  and 
congenital  diseases  inherited  from  parents  suf 
fering  from  the  effects  of  sexual  immorality  and 
debauchery.  Translated  into  common  speech, 
they  are  nothing  more  than  infant  starvation,  in 
fant  weakness,  and  infant  wasting  away,  the 
cause  of  which  is  that  the  infants'  parents  be 
fore  them  have  not  given  them  a  fighting  chance 
for  life.  According  to  Hoffman,  over  50  per 
cent,  of  the  negro  children  born  in  Richmond, 
Va.,  die  before  they  are  one  year  old. 

'The  number  of  still  and  premature  births 
among  us  is  a  matter  of  great  alarm,  not  only  be 
cause  it  seriously  interferes  with  the  numerical 
increase  of  the  race,  but  because  it  involves  the 
fecundity,  the  health,  and  even  the  moral  char 
acter  of  large  numbers  of  our  women.  The  sup 
port  of  the  family  often  falls  very  heavily  upon 
our  poor  washerwomen;  and  since  they  find  it 
hard  to  get  the  husks  to  feed  and  the  rags  to 
clothe  their  already  large  number  of  little  folks, 
living  in  one  room  like  stock,  rather  than  add 
to  their  burden,  they  resort  to  crime.  An  official 
on  the  Nashville  Board  of  Health,  who  is  also 
proprietor  of  a  drug  store,  tells  me  that  he  is 
astonished  at  the  number  of  colored  women  who 
apply  at  his  store  for  drugs  with  a  criminal  pur 
pose  in  view," 

Prevalence  of  Coniumption 

A  second  cause  of  excessive  death  rate  among 
negroes  is  consumption.  According  to  the  census 
of  1890,  the  mortality  from  consumption  per 


76  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

100,000  of  each  race  in  certain  typical  cities  was 
as  follows :  * 

White.  Colored. 

Charleston,  S.  C.  3554  686.3 

New  Orleans,  La.  2S°-3  5%77 

Savannah,  Ga  371-1  54-4 

Mobile,  Ala.  304.1  608.2 

Atlanta,  Ga.  213.8  483.7 

Richmond,  Va.  23O-5  411.1 

Washington,  D.  C.  245  591-8 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  table  that  the  lowest  ex 
cess  for  the  colored  deaths  over  white  from  con 
sumption  is  74  per  cent,  in  Richmond,  and  the 
highest  excess  is  136  per  cent,  in  the  City  of  New 
Orleans.  Not  only  is  this  death  rate  very  much 
higher,  but  it  seems  to  be  increasing.  The 
figures  from  the  City  of  Charleston,  from  1822 
or  1894,  will  indicate  this;2 

CONSUMPTION    IN    CHARLESTON,    S.    C,    1822-1894 

(Death  rates  per  100,000  of  population). 

Period.  White.  Colored. 

1822-30  457  447 

1831-40  331  ....  320 

1841-48  268  266 

1865-74  .198  41 1 

1875-84  255  668 

1885-94  I^9  ....  627 


1  Figures   taken   from   "Race   Traits  and   Tendencies 
of  American  Negro,"  p.  83. 

2  Figures  copied  from  "Race  Traits  and  Tendencies 
of  American  Negro,"  p.  70. 


HEALTH  AND   HOUSING  OF  THE   NEGRO         77 

Thus,  while  the  consumptive  death  rate,  1822-30, 
was  about  equal  for  whites  and  blacks,  that  of  the 
blacks  was  nearly  three  and  one-third  times  as 
great  as  that  of  the  whites  for  the  period  1885- 
1894.  It  seems  quite  evident  that  consumption 
is  very  much  more  prevalent  since  slavery  than 
during  slave  days. 

Predisposition  to  Consumption 

Hoffman  thinks  the  negro  has  a  predisposition 
to  consumption,  the  conclusions  concerning  which 
he  sums  up  the  following  words:1  ''The  aver 
age  girth  of  chest  of  the  negro  male  of  thirty 
years  ago  was  slightly  greater  than  that  of  the 
white,  but  at  the  present  time  the  chest  expansion 
of  the  colored  male  is  less  than  that  of  the  white. 
This  decrease  in  the  size  of  the  living  thorax  in 
part  explains  the  increase  in  the  mortality  from 
consumption  and  respiratory  diseases." 

"The  capacity  of  the  lungs  of  the  negro  is  con 
siderably  below  that  of  the  white.  This  fact, 
coupled  with  the  smaller  weight  of  the  lungs 
(4  oz.),  is  without  question  another  powerful 
factor  in  the  great  mortality  from  diseases  of  the 
lungs."  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  one  cause 
of  depleted  lung  power  and  hence  of  increased 
consumption,  may  be  the  foul  atmosphere  in  the 
midst  of  which  so  many  negroes  live. 

These  facts  will  only  explain  the  prevalence  of 
the  disease  and  not  its  increase.  The  reason  for 
the  increase  of  the  disease  among  negroes  may 
possibly  be  found  in  the  increase  of  that  other 
group  of  diseases,  scrofula,  syphilis  and  gon- 

1  "Race  Traits  and  Tendencies,"  p.   170. 


78  NEGRO  LIFE   IN   THE  SOUTH 

orrhea.  These  diseases  are  known  to  be  veritable 
scourges  among  the  colored  population.  I  have 
taken  pains  to  question  a  great  many  Christian 
physicians,  both  white  and  colored,  about  the 
prevalence  of  gonorrhea  among  negroes,  and 
most  of  them  put  the  percentage  among  the  men 
at  ninety-five  out  of  every  hundred.  Some  of  the 
colored  physicians  have  put  it  higher  than  that. 
There  can,  of  course,  be  no  reliable  statistics 
secured  on  this  point,  and  these  are  simply  opin 
ions  which  cannot  be  verified.  It  is  always 
dangerous  to  accept  opinions  as  verified  facts: 
but,  allowing  for  all  error,  the  figures  must  be 
alarmingly  high.  Let  us  turn  to  the  Atlanta 
University  investigation,  which  was  made  by 
negroes,  to  find  their  opinion  about  the  increase 
and  deadliness  of  these  diseases  among  their  own 
race :  *  "For  the  period  1882-85,  the  colored  death 
rate  in  Memphis  from  scrofula  and  syphilis  was 
205.8  per  cent,  in  excess  of  that  among  the 
whites;  but  from  1891  down  to  the  present  time, 
the  excess  has  been  298  per  cent.  For  the 
period  1893-95,  there  were  in  the  City  of  Nash 
ville  8  white  deaths  from  scrofula  and  syphilis, 
and  35  colored.  In  proportion  to  the  population 
there  ought  to  have  been  only  5  colored.  Of 
course,  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  fact  that, 
on  account  of  the  scandal  and  disgrace,  white 
physicians  are  reluctant  to  report  white  deaths 
from  these  causes;  whereas  such  motives  rarely, 
if  ever,  influence  them  in  reporting  colored 
deaths." 

1  "Social    and    Physical    Condition    of    Negroes    in 
Cities,"  p.  23. 


HEALTH   AND   HOUSING  OF   THE    NEGRO          79 

Scrofula  and  Syphilis 

"According  to  the  May  Bulletin  of  the  Depart 
ment  of  Labor,  out  of  1,090  colored  people  can 
vassed  this  year  in  the  City  of  Nashville,  18  were 
suffering  from  scrofula  and  syphilis.  One  whose 
attention  has  not  been  called  to  the  matter  has 
no  conception  of  the  prevalence  of  these  diseases 
among  the  negroes  of  Nashville.  I  have  looked 
for  it  in  both  races  as  I  have  walked  the  streets  of 
my  city,  and  to  come  across  the  loathsome  disease 
in  the  colored  passers-by  is  not  an  uncommon  oc 
currence.  This  state  of  affairs  can  be  accounted 
for  when  I  tell  you  that  there  is  probably  no  city 
in  this  country  where  prostitution  among  colored 
people  is  more  rampant  and  brazen,  and  where 
abandoned  colored  women  are  more  numerous  or 
more  public  in  their  shameful  traffic." 

Inferences 

It  would  seem  to  be  a  fair  conclusion  from 
these  facts  that  sexual  immorality  among  negroes 
is  so  debilitating  the  mothers  and  fathers,  that  a 
large  percentage  of  the  children  are  born  dead,  or 
else  they  enter  the  world  so  starved  and  diseased 
that  half  of  them  die  before  they  reach  the  age  of 
one  year. 

Further,  it  may  be  concluded  that  this  sexual 
immorality  is  so  sapping  the  vital  power  of  the 
negro  race  that  they  fall  an  easy  prey  to  diseases 
such  as  consumption,  and  when  once  such  a  dis 
ease  has  got  hold  of  their  lives  they  have  not  the 
vital  power  to  withstand  or  check  its  ravages. 
And,  lastly,  one  may  conclude  that  -the  diseases 
which  arise  out  of  sexual  immorality  are  taking 


8O  NEGRO  LIFE  IN   THE  SOUTH 

off  large  numbers  of  the  race  to  premature 
graves.  Here  is  a  sight  loathsome  enough  to 
sicken  even  the  stoutest  heart.  A  race  of  people 
in  our  very  midst,  many  of  them  working  in  our 
own  homes,  and  yet  dying  of  a  more  awful 
leprosy  than  one  dare  describe — a  leprosy  all  the 
more  deadly  because  it  kills  not  only  the  body  but 
damns  the  soul. 

Housing  and  Health 

What  relationship  has  the  housing  question  to 
these  questions  of  health  and  morals?  A  very 
vital  one,  and  yet,  perhaps,  not  just  the  relation 
which  has  been  so  commonly  in  mind.  It  is  not 
fevers  alone  that  arise  out  of  housing  conditions, 
though  such  conditions  may  be  directly  re 
sponsible  for  a  large  portion  of  such  diseases. 
Poor  housing,  back  alleys,  no  ventilation,  poor 
sanitation,  no  sunshine  do  much  to  foster  disease 
of  all  kinds.  In  particular  they  prepare  fertile 
soil  for  the  growth  of  the  tubercular  germs. 
They  weaken  the  body  of  the  inhabitant  so  that 
he  is  not  best  able  to  withstand  disease.  They 
may  so  discourage  the  people  who  dwell  in  such 
surroundings  that  they  do  not  struggle  against 
the  ravages  of  sickness. 

Housing  and  Morals 

But  these  are  not  the  worst  results  of  the  over 
crowding  and  poor  housing.  By  far  the  worst 
results  on  health  arise  out  of  the  low  state  of 
morals  they  superinduce.  So  long  as  people  are 
huddled  together  in  filthy  houses  and  unsanitary 
surroundings,  so  long  will  they  be  lacking  in  that 
pride  and  self-respect  which  makes  for  morality. 


HEALTH   AND   HOUSING  OF  THE    NEGRO         8l 

A  man  living  on  a  clean  street — all  other  things 
being  equal — is  a  more  decent  and  moral  man 
than  he  would  be  were  he  living  on  a  back  alley. 
A  man  who  has  had  a  bath  is  surely  more  apt 
to  have  clean  thoughts  than  the  man  who  never 
bathes.  The  man  who  wears  decent  clothes  in 
keeping  with  his  decent  surroundings  has  a 
better  chance  to  be  moral  than  the  man  who  is 
filthy  in  the  midst  of  filthy  surroundings.  No 
man  who  has  ever  shaved  and  bathed  and  donned 
clean  linen  can  for  one  moment  fail  to  understand 
that  cleanliness  not  only  is  next  to  godliness,  but 
cleanliness  helps  to  create  godliness.  We  can 
not  make  people  moral  so  long  as  they  live  in 
filth  and  in  squalid  surroundings. 

Further,  people  cannot  be  moral  so  long  as  they 
are  herded  together  like  cattle  without  privacy  or 
decency.  If  the  men  and  the  women,  the  boys 
and  the  girls  from  half  a  dozen  tenements  are 
forced  to  use  one  toilet,  we  cannot  expect  either 
privacy  or  decency.  If  a  mother,  a  father,  three 
grown  daughters,  and  men  boarders  have  to  sleep 
in  two  small  rooms,  we  must  expect  lack  of  mod 
esty,  promiscuity,  illegitimacy  and  sexual  dis 
eases.  It  would  be  a  miracle  if  it  turned  out 
otherwise.  No  nation  in  modern  times  can  live 
and  be  moral  when  its  people  eat  and  drink,  work 
and  sleep,  bring  forth  children  and  come  to  death 
in  one-room  cabins.  A  one-room  house,  however 
clean,  is  not  conducive  to  family  morality,  and  the 
sooner  we  realize  this  and  have  some  measure  of 
sympathy  for  the  weakness  of  people  who  live 
under  such  conditions,  the  sooner  will  we  take 
steps  to  make  conditions  of  life  for  the  negro  such 
<is  will  be  more  conducive  to  morality. 


82  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

After  all,  the  question  of  negro  health  and 
housing  is  a  moral  question.  His  present  mode 
of  life  is  such  as  to  render  it  well  nigh  impossible 
ior  him  to  be  moral,  and  his  present  immorality 
makes  him  an  inefficient  laborer,  an  expensive 
criminal,  a  distributor  of  infectious  diseases,  and 
a  moral  plague.  We  are — whether  we  like  it  or 
not — bound  in  the  matter  of  self-defense,  to  see 
that  these  conditions  are  changed.  He  must  have  a 
new  sense  of  personal  purity,  he  must  have  a  new 
sense  of  the  sacredness  of  the  family  relations, 
he  must  come  to  have  a  new  pride  in  his  home. 
To  this  end  the  houses  in  which  he  lives  must 
be  improved,  the  streets  on  which  his  house 
stands  must  be  cleaner,  and  the  sanitation  in  his 
section  of  the  city  must  be  made  equal  to  that 
of  any  other  section  of  the  city  in  which  he  lives. 

Common  Sense  Policy 

It  is  not  maudlin  sentiment  that  dictates  such 
a  policy;  it  is  sane  commonsense.  It  is  the  law 
of  economics  which  demands  strong,  healthy 
and  efficient  labor ;  it  is  the  law  of  self-preserva 
tion  which  knows  the  danger  of  social  contamina 
tion;  it  is  the  law  of  justice  which  would  give  to 
every  man,  whether  rich  or  poor,  learned  or 
ignorant,  white  or  black,  an  equal  chance  to 
achieve,  and  that  under  the  fairest  conditions;  it 
is  these  laws  and  not  sentiment  that  demand  the 
betterment  of  the  negro's  condition. 

Hopeful  Signs 

Through  the  darkness  of  the  present  condition 
there  are  two  rays  of  light.  The  first  is  the 


HEALTH  AND   HOUSING  OF  THE   NEGRO         83 

awakening  conscience  of  a  respectable  minority 
of  the  colored  race,  who  are  making  a  heroic 
fight  to  preserve  their  own  purity  of  life,  and  do 
ing  what  they  can  to  lift  their  race  out  of  the 
mire.  All  honor  to  the  little  band  of  brave, 
heroic  souls.  It  is  a  battle  worthy  of  the  best 
steel.  Here  and  there  I  have  met  these  moral 
heroes,  and  their  bold,  hopeful  courage  in  the 
oresence  of  such  difficulties  is  a  tonic  to  the  faith 
of  any  man.  He  who  would  scorn  such  a  fighter 
or  laugh  at  his  failures  and  mistakes  has  not 
the  spirit  of  true  chivalry  in  his  heart.  Would 
that  we  had  more  men  who  labored  as  unselfishly 
for  what  they  conceive  to  be  the  good  of  their 
people,  as  are  Washington,  DuBois,  Gilbert, 
Hunton,  Hope  and  scores  of  others  less  promin 
ent,  but  no  less  earnest. 

The  second  ray  of  light  emanates  from  the 
awakening  responsibility  of  the  white  man.  As 
I  have  traveled  from  college  to  college,  here  and 
there  I  have  found  college  men  that  really  cared, 
men  that  saw  the  dire  need  of  these  "neighbors 
in  black,"  and  began  to  stretch  out  a  hand  to 
them.  It  is  not  strange — it  is  what  one  would 
expect — that  this  generation  of  college  men  are 
more  interested  in  these  human  beings  by  their 
sides  than  any  other  class  of  men,  and  the  time 
will  come  when  every  college  man  will  see  that 
his  larger  culture,  his  better  chance,  his  broader 
outlook — all  these  put  him  under  obligation  to 
help  the  race  that  is  down. 


IV 
THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  NEGRO 


UNEXPRESSED 

Deep  in  my  heart  that  aches  with  the  repression, 
And  strives  with  plenitude  of  bitter  pain, 

There  lives  a  thought  that  clamors  for  expression, 
And  spends  its  undelivered  force  in  vain. 

What  boots  it  that  some  other  may  have  thought  it? 

The  right  of  thoughts'  expression  is  divine; 
The  price  of  pain  I  pay  for  it  has  bought  it, 

I  care  not  who  lays  claim  to  it — 'tis  mine ! 

And  yet  not  mine  until  it  be  delivered; 

The  manner  of  its  birth  shall  prove  the  test. 
Alas,  alas,  my  rock  of  pride  is  shivered — 

I  beat  my  brow — the  thought  still  unexpressed. 

— PAUL  LAURENCE  DUNBAR. 


86 


IV 
THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  NEGRO 

1'rejudice  Against  Education 

Aside  from  the  question  of  social  inter 
mingling,  perhaps  the  question  of  negro  educa 
tion  has  aroused  more  prejudice  and  created 
more  discussion  than  any  other  in  connection  with 
the  race  problem.  Those  who  have  studied  the 
prevailing  opinion  among  Southern  whites  must 
recognize  that  there  is  little  enthusiasm  for  the 
educated  negro.  As  a  civilized  nation  we  have 
long  since  accepted  the  maxim  that  "knowledge 
is  power,"  and  that  any  nation  which  keeps  its 
people  in  ignorance  is  doomed  to  mediocrity.  But 
somehow  we  have  not  applied  this  thought  to  the 
colored  race  of  America.  Perhaps  this  attitude 
has  arisen  out  of  the  fear  that  education  will 
lead  to  negro  dominance  in  politics  and  to  pro 
miscuous  mingling  in  social  life.  The  Southern 
white  man  will  never  be  enthusiastic  for  negro 
education  until  he  is  convinced  that  such  educa 
tion  will  not  lead  to  either  of  these.  Neither 
will  he  become  enthusiastic  until  he  finds  the 
trained  negro  becoming  a  more  efficient  work 
man  and  a  better  citizen.  The  so-called  educated 
negro  has  not  always  proven  himself  a  better 
laborer  or  a  better  citizen.  This,  perhaps,  ii 

87 


88  NEGRO  LIFE   IN  THE  SOUTH 

the  fault  neither  of  education  nor  of  the  negro — 
it  is  the  fault  of  mistaken  ideas  of  what  con 
stitutes  education.  There  has  been  much  said 
about  the  decrease  of  illiteracy  among  negroes 
from  somewhere  between  90  per  cent,  and  100 
per  cent  in  1865,  to  only  43  per  cent,  in  1909. 
This  is  a  marvelous  development,  and  is  a  long 
step  toward  education.  To  be  able  to  read  and 
write  opens  up  an  entirely  new  world  to  men.  It 
is  as  though  one  opened  the  eyes  of  the  blind  or 
unstopped  the  ears  of  the  deaf.  But  I  can  easily 
understand  that  the  discordant  noises  of  the 
world  would  break  with  great  harshness  on  those 
ears  which  had  always  been  closed,  and  the  soul 
wiin  this  new  gateway  of  knowledge  suddenly 
opened  would  be  completely  bewildered  and  fail 
to  understand  the  meaning  of  all  these  conflict 
ing  noises.  So  it  is  with  the  negro  who  has  just 
come  into  possession  of  the  use  of  these  strange 
symbols  that  we  call  an  alphabet.  He  is  not 
at  once  transformed  into  a  man  with  a  cultured 
mind;  he  must  be  bewildered  by  much  that  he 
reads,  having  no  key  to  its  real  understanding. 
Education  for  the  negro  has  not  been  tried,  for 
the  little  smattering  of  knowledge  which  he  has 
may  well  have  bewildered  him  rather  than  cleared 
his  thought. 

Present  Negroes  vs.  Slave  Negroes 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  negro  is  more  im 
moral  to-day  than  he  was  during  slavery  days — 
now  that  he  is  all  too  free.  Neither  can  it  be 
denied  that  the  mass  of  negroes  were  better 
trained  workmen  during  slavery  days  than  now, 


THE   EDUCATION   OF   THE   NEGRO  89 

even  though  in  slavery  days  nine  out  of  every 
ten  were  illiterate.  Not  infrequently  men  have 
jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  the  cause  of  the 
immorality  and  of  the  economic  inefficiency  is 
education.  This,  however,  is  an  entirely  unwar 
ranted  conclusion. 

Unfounded  Argument 

"These  opponents  of  negro  education,  with  the 
lack  of  logic  characteristic  of  the  man  who  draws 
general  conclusions  from  a  few  particulars  and 
sees  only  what  is  superficially  discernible  with 
out  looking  for  deeper  and  more  far-reaching 
causes,  ascribe  the  cause  of  this  difference  to 
the  little  education  that  the  negro  has  received. 
The  modern  negro  has  had  some  sort  of  educa 
tion  and  the  old-issue  negro  had  none,  therefore 
they  argue  education  is  the  cause  of  the  inferior 
ity  of  the  modern  negro.  They  forget  that  the 
best  of  the  old  negroes  were  trained  in  the  best 
industrial  schools,  on  farms  and  in  shops,  for  the 
work  they  were  to  do  in  life,  under  the  direction 
of  intelligent  masters ;  that  in  many  instances  the 
intimacy  of  relations  between  them  and  the 
families  of  humane  masters  afforded  them  an  en 
vironment,  association  and  example  that  proved 
most  potent  in  shaping  and  strengthening  their 
characters;  and  that  the  whole  social  system  of 
the  old  regime  was  conducive  to  training  the 
negroes  in  obedience,  self-restraint  and  industry. 
Though  these  old  negroes  were  ignorant  of 
books,  they  were,  from  earliest  infancy,  trained 
?nd  educated  in  many  of  the  essentials  of  good 
citizenship  and  efficient  service.  The  present 


QO  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

generation  of  negroes  have  been  given  a  mere 
smattering  of  the  unessentials  of  knowledge,  and 
left  untrained  in  those  other  things  so  essential 
to  life  and  happiness  and  progress.  The  new 
generation,  without  preparation,  were  ushered 
into  freedom  and  have  been  left  to  follow  largely 
their  own  will  without  direction  or  restraint, 
save  that  of  the  criminal  law,  without  elevating 
associations,  without  leaders  or  teachers,  save  a 
few  rare  exceptions." 

Need  of  Practical  Demonstration 

"We  cannot  answer  effectively  this  prejudice 
against  negro  education,  arising  from  the  results 
produced  by  causes  largely  attributable,  perhaps, 
to  revolutionized  social,  political  and  industrial 
conditions  wrought  by  the  tornado  of  civil  war, 
save  with  a  practical  demonstration  of  the  better 
results  of  a  better  education.  All  the  evils  of  a 
reconstruction  of  society,  life  and  government 
upon  a  weak  race  unprepared  for  such  changes, 
ushered  into  the  new  order  of  things  with  but 
few  intelligent,  wise,  right-thinking  leaders,  with 
out  power  of  proper  self-restraint  or  self-direc 
tion,  have  been  laid  by  the  demagogues,  by  the 
unthinking,  and  by  some  other  men  and  women 
as  honest  and  patriotic  as  any  that  breathe,  at  the 
door  of  partial  education  as  the  quickest,  easiest 
and  most  plausible  solution  of  the  unsatisfac 
tory  results.  Too  few  stop  to  think  what  might 
have  been  the  result  if  the  new  generation  of 
negroes  had  been  allowed  to  grow  up  in  absolute 
ignorance  under  these  changed  conditions,  with 
the  rights  and  freedom  of  citizens  of  a  republic, 
without  the  restraint  of  the  training  and  the 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE   NEGRO  OJ 

association  of  educated  masters,  as  under  the 
old  system.  Too  few  stop  to  think  that  what 
ever  of  deterioration  there  may  have  been  in 
the  new  generation  of  negroes,  as  compared  with 
the  old,  may  be  more  attributable  to  a  change  in 
civilization  and  in  the  whole  order  of  things  than 
to  the  little  learning  that  he  has  received.  Too 
few  stop  to  think  of  the  danger  and  the  unfair 
ness  of  the  sort  of  reasoning  that  compares  the 
best  of  the  old  generation  of  negroes  with  the 
worst  of  the  new,  that  compares  the  partly  edu 
cated  negro  of  the  present  generation  with  the 
illiterate  negro  of  the  old  generation,  who,  though 
ignorant  of  books,  had  much  knowledge  of  many 
useful  industries  and  trades  and  better  oppor 
tunities  of  acquiring  such  knowledge;  instead  of 
comparing  the  literate  negro  of  the  new  genera 
tion  with  the  illiterate  negro  of  the  new  genera 
tion,  that  ascribes  all  the  faults  found  in  the 
new  generation  to  the  smattering  of  learning  that 
they  have  received  and  all  the  virtues  found  in 
the  old  generation  to  their  illiteracy.  One  is 
partly  educated,  the  other  was  illiterate;  there 
fore  education  is  the  cause  of  the  faults  of  the 
one  and  illiteracy  of  the  virtues  of  the  other.  The 
absurdity  of  such  logic  ought  to  be  manifest  to 
the  average  man.  Here  are  two  men,  one  edu 
cated,  the  other  ignorant.  One  becomes  a  mur 
derer,  for  there  have  been  educated  murderers  in 
all  times;  the  other  becomes  a  good  citizen,  for 
there  have  been  ignorant  good  citizens  in  all 
times;  therefore  education  makes  murderers  and 
ignorance  makes  good  citizens."  5 

1  Report  of  North   Carolina  Superintendent  of  Pub 
lic   Instruction.     1906-7;    1907-8,   pp.   44,  45. 


92  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Reconstruction  and  Prejudice  Against  Education 

Another  cause  for  prejudice  against  negro 
education  arises  out  of  its  checkered  career 
during  reconstruction  days.  At  that  particular 
time  the  relationship  between  the  Northern  white 
and  the  Southern  white  man  was  greatly  strained. 
The  North  suspected  the  South  of  keeping  the 
negro  in  ignorance  in  order  that  he  might  be 
exploited;  and  the  South  suspected  the  North  of 
trying  to  educate  the  negro  in  order  that  he 
might  have  political  dominion  and  sooner  or  later 
lay  claim  to  so-called  social  equality.  Both  sides 
were  in  a  measure  right  and  it  is  certain  now 
that  both  were  in  a  measure  wrong.  It  is  usually 
an  unsafe  thing  to  condemn  wholesale  the 
motives  and  the  judgment  of  the  people  of  a 
whole  section,  whether  North  or  South.  Never 
theless,  in  the  passion  of  the  times,  many  mistakes 
were  made  by  the  missionaries  who  came  South, 
which  completely  alienated  the  Southern  whites, 
and  it  is  only  within  the  last  decade  that  this 
gulf  has  been  at  all  adaquately  bridged.  Even 
now  there  are  not  a  few  sincere  Southern  men 
who  confuse  negro  education  with  doctrines  of 
social  intermingling.  It  is  now  time  we  were 
forgetting  this  feeling  and  facing  like  men  the 
question  of  negro  education  on  its  merits,  with 
out  reference  to  the  mistakes  of  the  past,  save  in 
so  far  as  they  may  serve  as  warnings  for  the 
present. 

Education  in  Slave  Days 

The  history  of  negro  education  before  the 
Civil  War  is  very  checkered  and  also  very 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE   NEGRO  93 

meager.  It  was  not  thought  wise  to  educate  the 
slaves  lest  they  might  become  restive,  hence  one 
State  after  another,  both  North  and  South,  put 
laws  on  their  statute  books  forbidding  the  teach 
ing  of  negroes.  In  1740  South  Carolina  passed 
a  law  with  the  following  provisions : 

"Whereas,  the  having  of  slaves  taught  to  write, 
or  suffering  them  to  be  employed  in  writing,  may 
be  attended  with  inconvenience  be  it  enacted, 
That  all  and  any  person  or  persons  whatsoever, 
who  shall  hereafter  teach,  or  cause  any  slave  or 
slaves  to  be  taught,  or  shall  use  or  employ  any 
slave  as  scribe  in  any  manner  of  writing  what 
ever,  hereafter  taught  to  write,  every  such  person 
or  persons  shall  for  every  such  offense  forfeit  the 
sum  of  loo  pounds  current  money." 

In  1831  Virginia  followed  suit  with  the  fol 
lowing  law: 

"That  all  meetings  of  free  negroes  or  mulat- 
toes  at  any  school  house,  church,  meeting-house 
or  other  place  for  teaching  them  reading  or  writ 
ing,  either  in  the  day  or  night,  under  whatsoever 
pretext,  shall  be  deemed  an  unlawful  assembly. 
.  .  .  If  any  white  person  or  persons  assemble 
with  free  negroes  or  mulattoes  at  any  school 
house,  church,  meeting-house,  or  other  place  for 
the  purpose  of  instructing  such  free  negroes  or 
mulattoes  to  read  or  write,  such  person  or  persons 
shall,  on  conviction  thereof,  be  fined  a  sum  not 
exceeding  $50,  and,  moreover,  may  be  impris 
oned,  at  the  discretion  of  a  jury,  not  exceeding 
two  months. "' 

1  "Race  Adjustment."— Miller,  p.  251. 
'Ibid.  p.  252. 


94  NEGRO  LIFE  IN   THE  SOUTH. 

In  1829  Georgia  put  on  her  statute  books  a 
law  which  reads  as  follows : 

"If  any  slave,  negro,  or  free  person  of  color,  or 
any  white  person,  shall  teach  any  other  slave, 
negro,  or  free  person  of  color  to  read  or  write, 
either  written  or  printed  characters,  the  said  free 
person  of  color  or  slave  shall  be  punished  by  fine 
and  whipping,  or  fine  or  whipping,  at  the  dis 
cretion  of  the  court;  and  if  a  white  person  so 
offend  he,  she,  or  they  shall  be  punished  with  a 
fine  not  exceeding  $500  and  imprisonment  in  the 
common  jail,  at  the  discretion  of  the  court."1 

Mississippi,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky  and 
Louisiana  in  establishing  their  systems  of  public 
education  between  1830  and  1840  all  discrim 
inated  against  the  colored  race. 

In  spite  of  these  facts,  however,  there  were  a 
number  of  schools  in  existence  before  1860  for 
the  training  of  the  children  of  freedmen.  It  is 
estimated  that  in  the  slave  States  at  the  opening 
of  the  war  there  were  no  less  than  4,000  free 
colored  children  in  school. 

Freedman's  Bureau 

The  second  period  of  negro  education  extends 
from  1860  to  1875.  This  is  the  period  of  the 
army  schools,  the  Freedman's  Bureau,  and  of 
Northern  domination.  The  "army  schools,"  as 
they  were  called,  were  made  up  of  those  negroes 
who  fled  to  the  Federal  armies  and  were  organ- 
izd  into  schools.  When  the  Freedman's  Bureau 
opened  work  in  1866,  these  schools  had  in  attend 
ance  nearly  one  hundred  thousand.  When  Gen- 

'"Race  Adjustment."-— Miller,  p.  24& 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE   NEGRO  95 

cral  O.  O.  Howard  was  put  in  charge  of  the 
Freedman's  Bureau  he  took  over  these  schools, 
gave  them  a  better  organization,  doubled  their 
attendance,  and  brought  in  a  large  number  of  the 
best  young  women  of  the  North  as  teachers. 
That  these  schools  did  not  do  all  that  could  be 
expected  was  surely  not  due  to 'the  lack  of  un 
selfishness  on  the  part  of  these  teachers. 

Period  of  Industrialism 

About  1870  the  Southern  States  began  estab 
lishing  schools  for  negroes,  and  by  1875  a  con 
structive  policy  was  in  the  making.  With  the 
establishment  of  Hampton  Institute  a  new  type  of 
education  came  into  vogue,  which  has  greatly  in 
fluenced  alj  subsequent  educational  methods.  The 
third  period  of  negro  education,  therefore,  has 
been  marked  by  a  decided  tendency  toward  in 
dustrialism.  This  tendency  has  been  constantly 
accentuated  as  the  industrial  awakening  of  the 
South  has  been  more  and  more  pronounced. 

A  Dual  System  of  Schools 

It  was  during  this  period  that  the  South  came 
to  realize  the  stupendous  task  that  lay  before  her 
in  educating  two  races  in  separate  school  systems, 
and  yet  with  heroism  the  men  of  this  section  have 
set  their  faces  forward  and  they  will  not  turn 
back.  This  dual  system  has  been  expensive  in  a 
country  so  sparsely  settled  as  the  South,  and  it  is 
but  natural  that  it  should  have  meant  poorer 
schools,  shorter  terms  and  more  meager  salaries. 
Nevertheless  it  has  been  a  necessity.  In  many  of 
the  counties  of  the  South  there  are  two,  three  or 


96  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

even  ten  negroes  to  every  white  man,  and  to  mix 
the  schools  in  these  sections  would  be  to  reduce 
the  more  advanced  race  to  the  station  of  the  less 
advanced. 

This  would  be  an  expensive  process  both  for 
the  white  and  the  colored  race.  If  the  colored 
race  is  to  find  its  largest  progress,  it  must  be 
through  the  inspiration  and  help  of  the  more 
cultured  race,  and  that  race  to  give  its  best,  needs 
to  have  opportunity  to  develop  its  children  under 
the  most  favorable  conditions.  Not  only  so,  but 
the  negro  has  gained  in  that  he  has  had  a  chance 
to  furnish  the  teachers  and  leaders  for  his  own 
race.  This  has  set  a  goal  of  ambition  for  the 
negro  youth,  and  has  meant  much  to  engender  a 
real  race  pride.  Had  the  races  been  educated  to 
gether,  the  schools  would  have  had  white 
teachers,  and  the  negro  would  have  lost  this  ad 
vantage.  Under  the  heavy  burden  of  a  double 
school  system  the  South  has  moved  steadily  and 
bravely  forward. 

Elementary  Education  Needed 

Three  types  of  education  are  needed  for  the 
negro  of  the  South.  The  first  is  that  of  the 
elementary  public  school.  This  the  South  has 
deliberately  set  out  to  furnish.  According  to  the 
Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Education  for  1909,  there  were  in  the  former 
slave  States  3,054,888  negro  children  between 
the  ages  of  five  and  eighteen.  Of  this  number 
1,659,217,  or  about  54  per  cent.,  were  enrolled  in 
the  common  schools  of  these  States.  Including 
the  numbers  in  two  or  three  of  the  border  States, 


THE  EDUCATION   OF  THE   NEGRO  97 

there  were  3,114  male  teachers  and  5,886  female 
teachers  in  charge  of  these  children.  All  of  the 
Southern  States  do  not  keep  separate  records  of 
expenditures  for  the  education  of  the  two  races, 
so  no  exact  amount  can  be  given.  North  Car 
olina  does  keep  such  a  record.  This  State  had 
231,801  colored  children  of  school  age  in  1908,  as 
compared  with  483,915  white  children.  For  the 
colored  children  the  State  spent  on  common 
schools  $366,734.28,  as  compared  with  $1,851,- 
376.57  for  white  children.  In  other  words,  for 
less  than  half  the  number  of  children  about  one- 
fifth  of  the  amount  spent  for  whites  was  spent  on 
colored  schools.  The  expenditure  per  colored 
child  was  $1.58,  that  for  each  white  child  of 
school  age,  $3.82.  If  this  same  proportion  holds 
for  the  other  former  slave  States,  the  total  ex 
penditure  for  negro  common  schools  for  1907-8 
would  be  $12,487.079.  Of  course,  one  cannot  be 
sure  that  this  is  even  an  approximately  close 
estimate.  The  total  amount  of  money  spent  in 
the  common  schools  of  these  former  slave  States 
since  1870  is  $979,831,485.  If  one-fifth  of  this 
has  been  spent  on  negro  schools — which  is  prob 
ably  too  large  an  estimate — the  amount  would  be 
$195,966,097.  This  would  be  really  an  enormous 
sum  spent  by  the  white  people  of  the  South  on 
the  education  of  the  negro,  particularly  when  we 
consider  the  poverty  which  has  prevailed  in  this 
section  up  to  within  the  last  few  years. 

The  Negro's  Share 

Of  this  amount  the  negro  is  beginning  to  pay  a 
fair  proportion.     Thus,  in  1908,  in  North  Car- 


98  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

olina,  the  negroes  paid  in  taxes  $147,949  toward 
the  $366,734.28  spent  on  their  schools.  In  this 
connection  it  must  be  noted  that  $1.58  is  a  very 
paltry  sum  to  spend  on  the  education  of  a  child 
each  year.  At  this  rate  between  the  ages  of  five 
and  eighteen,  the  State  would  spend  on  every 
child  $20.12.  But  New  York  and  Massachusetts 
each  spend  $27  yearly  on  every  child  of  school 
age,  and  the  District  of  Columbia  spends  $35.21, 
and  yet  North  Carolina's  school  tax  is  heavier 
than  that  of  Massachusetts.  While  the  South, 
therefore,  is  making  a  heroic  effort  to  give  the 
common  school  to  the  negro,  the  results  are 
nothing  less  than  pitiable.  As  the  wealth  of  the 
section  grows,  there  must  be  heavier  school  taxes 
if  we  are  to  do  our  duty  by  these  backward 
people. 

Limitations 

The  outcome  of  these  meager  appropriations 
can  readily  be  seen  in  the  length  of  term  and 
salary  of  teachers.  The  average  length  of  term 
for  rural  colored  schools  in  North  Carolina  in 
1908  was  82.1  days,  and  the  average  length  for 
all  colored  schools,  including  city  high  schools, 
was  only  93  days.  The  average  monthly  salary  of 
rural  colored  teachers  this  same  year  was  $22.48, 
and  for  city  colored  teachers  it  was  $30.20. 
There  are  still  195  log  school  houses  for  colored 
children  in  the  State,  and  2,216  of  the  negro 
school  houses  are  still  furnished  with  home 
made  desks  and  benches.  I  have  before  me  the 
reports  from  almost  every  Southern  State  and 
the  figures  are  often  much  lower.  Thus,  in 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  NEGRO  99 

Georgia,  the  average  length  of  term  for  white 
children  is  59  days,  and  for  colored  children  40 
days.  The  salaries  paid,  however,  are  somewhat 
higher,  being  $37.65  per  month  for  negro  men, 
and  $27.22  per  month  for  negro  women.  In  most 
of  the  States  only  about  50  per  cent,  of  the 
negro  children  attend  school,  and  then  the  school 
houses  are  overcrowded.  In  some  of  our  South 
ern  cities  I  am  told  there  are  three  children  for 
every  seat  in  a  colored  school  house  if  they  all 
should  really  attend.  These  statements  are  surely 
enough  to  show  a  great  need  for  better  educa 
tional  equipment.  Of  the  need  for  better  teachers 
we  will  speak  later. 

Contribution  of  Public  Schools 

The  contribution  which  the  negro  common 
school  makes  to  the  civilizing  and  elevating  of 
the  negro,  Mr.  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy  puts  in 
the  four  following  statements : 

1.  "It  represents  the  discipline  of  punctuality. 
When  the  untutored  child  first  gets  into  his  mind 
the  notion  of  going  to  a  particular  place  and  of 
doing  a  particular  thing  at  a  particular  time,  he 
has  begun  to  get  into  line  with  conscious,  intel 
ligent,  efficient  human  life.     In  other  words,  he 
has  got  hold  of  one  of  the  rudimentary  assump 
tions  of  civilization." 

2.  "It  stands  also  for  the  discipline  of  order. 
The  child  finds  not  only  that  there  is  a  time  to 
come  and  a  time  to  go,  but  that  there  is  a  place  to 
sit  and  a  place  not  to  sit.    He  finds  that  there  is 
a  place  for  everything,  that  everything  has  its 
place,  and  that  even  standing  and  sitting,  as  well 


100  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

as  the  whole  task  of  behaving,  are  to  be  per 
formed  under  the  control  and  direction  of  an 
other. 

3.  'The  primary  school  stands  also  for  the  dis 
cipline  of  silence.     For  a  group  of  chattering 
children — negro  children,  any  children — there  is 
a  moral  value  in  the  discipline  of  silence.     To 
learn  how  to  keep  still,  to  learn  the  lesson  of  self- 
containment  and  self-command,  to  get  hold  of 
the  power  of  that  personal  calm  which  is  half 
modesty  and  half  courage,  to  learn  a  little  of  the 
meaning  of  quiet  and  something  of  the  secret  of 
listening — this  is  an  element  in  that  supremacy 
of  will  which  is  the  faculty  and  privilege  of  the 
civilized. 

4.  "Finally,  the  primary  school  stands  for  the 
discipline  of  association.  It  represents  the  idea 
of  getting  together.     Getting  together  is  a  civil 
izing  exercise.    Ten  people,  old  or  young,  cannot 
get  together  in  a  common  room  for  a  common 
purpose  without  every  one's  yielding  something 
for  the  sake  of  others — some  whim,  some  impulse 
of  restlessness,  some  specific  convenience,  or  some 
personal   comfort.     Human   society   is  a  moral 
achievement.  Associated  effort,  however  slight  the 
sphere  of  its  exercise,  represents  part  of  the  dis 
cipline  of  civilization."  3 

Industrial  Schools  Needed 

The  second  type  of  school  needed  for  the  negro 
is  that  which  gives  industrial  training.  In  fact 
every  common  school  should  have  some  industrial 
features.  One  of  the  charges  brought  against 

Present   South."— Murphy,  p.   73. 


THE   EDUCATION  OF  THE  NEGRO  IOI 

the  public  schools,  both  for  whites  and  blacks,  is 
that  they  train  children  away  from  the  practical 
interests  of  life.  This  practical  side  may  easily 
be  exaggerated,  and  our  schools  drift  into  simple 
bread  and  butter  machines,  without  any  of  the 
cultural  value  which  should  pertain  to  any  edu 
cation;  nevertheless,  there  is  need  that  we  shall 
guard  against  a  too  theoretical  system  of  edu 
cation. 

There  is  peculiar  need  to  guard  this  point  with 
the  negro  child  since  his  new  freedom  has  be 
gotten  a  disposition  to  despise  all  labor.  He  must 
be  taught  that  labor  is  sacred  and  that  honest 
toil  never  degrades.  If  he  is  to  have  this  atti 
tude  toward  labor,  he  must  be  taught  to  use  skill 
in  his  work,  to  take  pride  in  his  ability  to  do  it 
better  than  others  could  do  it.  Possibly  no  sec 
tion  of  the  country  is  so  greatly  in  need  of 
skilled  industrial  laborers  to-day  as  is  the  South. 
The  marvelous  growth  of  the  cotton  mills  during 
the  last  two  decades  is  the  wonder  of  the  manu 
facturing  world.  The  new  demands  for  inten 
sive  farming  make  it  imperative  that  we  shall 
have  better  trained  agriculturists.  The  develop 
ment  of  building  industries  calls  for  thousands  of 
skilled  carpenters,  masons,  bricklayers,  plumbers, 
painters,  etc.  Much  of  this  work  must  be  done 
by  colored  men.  If  they  are  not  well  trained,  our 
farms  will  produce  one-half  or  one- third  of  what 
they  ought  to  produce,  our  houses  will  be  poorly 
built,  and  every  industrial  interest  of  our  country 
will  languish.  Booker  T.  Washington  has  char 
acterized  industrial  education  as  having  these 
functions:  (i)  "To  teach  the  dignity  of  labor"; 


102  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

(2)  "To  teach  the  trades  thoroughly  and  effect 
ively";  (3)  "To  supply  the  demand  for  trained 
industrial  leaders."1 

South  an  Agricultural  Section 

The  South  is  still  largely  an  agricultural  sec 
tion.  This  is  peculiarly  true  of  the  colored  South. 
In  spite  of  the  rapid  drift  of  the  negro  to  the  city, 
probably  80  per  cent,  of  the  colored  laborers  are 
on  the  farms.  This  means  they  must  have  some 
special  training  in  agriculture.  They  must  learn 
how  to  make  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where 
formerly  only  one  grew.  If  this  is  to  come  about, 
every  negro  leader  must  have  a  deeper  sympathy 
for  this  industrial  life.  Booker  T.  Washington 
puts  it  thus  strongly : 

"I  do  not  want  to  startle  you  when  I  say  it, 
but  I  should  like  to  see  during  the  next  fifty 
years  every  colored  minister  and  teacher,  whose 
work  lies  outside  the  large  cities,  armed  with  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  theoretical  and  practical 
agriculture,  in  connection  with  his  theological 
and  academic  training.  This,  I  believe,  should  be 
so  because  the  race  is  an  agricultural  one,  and  be 
cause  my  hope  is  that  it  will  remain  such.  Upon 
this  foundation  almost  every  race  in  history  has 
got  its  start.  With  cheap  lands,  a  beautiful 
climate  and  a  rich  soil,  we  can  lay  the  foundation 
of  a  great  and  powerful  race.  The  question 
that  confronts  us  is  whether  we  will  take  ad 
vantage  of  this  opportunity?"2 

1  "Working  with  Hands,"  p.  &x 
'"Character   Building,"  p.   262. 


THE   EDUCATION   OF   THE   NEGRO  IO^ 

Public  Schools  Not  Industrial  Schools 

Now  the  negro  common  or  public  school  has 
not  been  able,  up  to  the  present  time,  to  meet 
this  need,  because  of  small  means.  Superin 
tendent  Joyner  puts  it  thus:  "When  we  are  ap 
propriating  only  $366,734.28  for  the  education  of 
231,801  negro  children,  we  need  not  be  enter 
taining  many  hopes  of  giving  the  negro  much 
helpful  industrial  training  yet,  for  everybody 
ought  to  know  that  this  amount  is  not  sufficient  to 
give  this  number  of  children  thorough  instruction 
in  the  mere  rudiments  of  reading,  writing  and 
arithmetic,  so  essential  to  civilized  living  and  in 
telligent  service  in  the  humblest  callings  of  life."1 

Jeanes  Foundation 

In  order  to  meet  this  pressing  need  for  agricul 
tural  and  industrial  training,  Miss  Anna  T. 
Jeanes  has  set  aside  a  fund  of  $1,000,000,  the  in 
terest  on  which  is  to  be  applied  in  aiding  rural 
schools.  Prof.  James  H.  Dillard,  formerly  Dean 
of  the  Academic  Department  of  Tulane  Univer 
sity,  is  the  president  and  general  agent  for  the 
Jeanes  Foundation.  The  methods  of  work  of  this 
Foundation  can  be  gathered  from  Professor  Dil 
lard's  report  on  the  work  done  in  Henrico  Coun 
ty,  Va.,  during  the  year  1908-9 : 

"We  supplied  the  county  superintendent  with 
the  salary  for  a  competent  teacher,  whose  duty 
it  should  be  to  introduce  industrial  work  into  the 
twenty-two  colored  rural  schools  of  the  county, 
and  to  supervise  the  work.  This  teacher,  Miss 

1  "Report  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools  ef 
North  Carolina."  1007-8,  p.  43. 


104  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Virginia  E.  Randolph,  began  work  on  October 
26,  1908,  and  the  schools  closed  June  i.  She 
has  spent  her  whole  time  in  visiting  these  schools, 
sometimes  two  or  three  a  day,  so  that  the  schools 
have  had  the  benefit,  not  only  of  the  industrial 
training,  but  of  constant  supervision,  suggestion 
and  encouragement.  It  has  also  been  a  part  of 
her  work  to  form  in  the  various  communities, 
organizations  for  school  and  home  improvement. 

Miss  Randolph  writes  me  that  the  work  of  the 
schools  is  now  on  exhibition  at  the  Henrico 
County  Court  House,  and  that  the  members  of 
the  Henrico  board  are  agreeably  surprised.  I 
can  state  from  letters  received  that  the  work  is 
very  heartily  approved  by  the  county  superin 
tendent. 

'There  are  very  many  counties  in  which  it 
would  be  impossible  at  present  to  carry  out  this 
plan.  Whether  from  lack  of  schools,  or  the  wide 
separation  of  those  that  exist,  or  the  shortness  of 
term,  or  the  incompetence  of  the  teachers,  the 
plan  would  not  yet  be  feasible.  I  find,  however, 
that  it  will  be  possible  in  many  places  to  adopt  a 
modification  of  the  plan;  that  is,  we  can  supply 
the  salary  for  a  teacher  at  the  most  favorable 
point  in  the  county,  have  this  teacher  give  three 
or  four  days'  work  to  this  school,  and  let  her 
give  the  rest  of  her  time  to  two,  three  or  four 
neighboring  schools,  with  the  intention  of  in 
fluencing  these  schools  and  communities  in  the 
same  manner  as  has  been  done  in  Henrico 
County."  * 

1  "Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Educa 
tion."    1909.    Vol.  I,  pp.  235-6. 


THE   EDUCATION   OF  THE  NEGRO  IO5 

Other  Form  of  Help 

During  the  first  year  of  the  work  of  this 
Foundation,  ending  July,  1909,  $15,059  was  thus 
spent  in  teachers'  salaries,  supplementing  the 
common  school  with  special  industrial  instruc 
tion.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  fund 
is  not  much  larger  in  order  that  this  work  might 
be  greatly  multiplied. 

Training  Leaders 

To  supply  the  leaders  in  this  industrial  educa 
tion  the  country  has  to  look  to  such  schools  as 
Hampton  Institute  in  Virginia,  and  Tuskegee  in 
Alabama.  We  are  scarcely  aware  of  the  debt  of 
gratitude  we  owe  to  these  two  schools  and  to 
those  newer  ones  that  are  trying  to  embody 
their  ideals.  The  ideal  of  these  schools  is  to  make 
men  efficient,  to  teach  them  the  dignity  of  labor, 
to  inculcate  the  ideal  of  service,  and  to  make  real 
to  every  student  his  duties  to  God  and  man. 
Some  people  have  found  fault  with  Tuskegee 
because  it  has  not  trained  servants  for  our  homes. 
It  has  done  a  much  more  important  thing.  It  has 
sent  out  hundreds  of  graduates  who  have  be 
come  the  foremost  leaders  of  their  race — training 
them  to  be  industrious,  to  work  regularly  and  to 
work  efficiently.  It  is  a  better  thing  for  a  girl 
that  graduates  from  Tuskegee  to  spend  her  en 
ergies  teaching  other  women  how  to  cook  and 
sew  well  than  to  spend  her  time  in  one  white 
man's  kitchen.  Ultimately  we  reap  the  benefit  in 
the  form  of  a  better  trained  laboring  class. 
Booker  T.  Washington  has  so  admirably  de 
scribed  the  purposes  of  this  type  of  school  in  his 


lOO  NEGRO  LIFE   IN   THE  SOUTH 

introductory  chapter  to  "Working  with  Hands," 
that  I  could  wish  that  every  Southern  man  would 
read  it  carefully. 

Special  Training  Needed 

The  third  type  of  negro  education  needed  is 
what  we  may  call  collegiate  training.  Against 
this  type  of  education  there  has  been  much  op 
position  and  prejudice.  I  suppose  there  is  no 
doubt  that  it  has  at  times  been  over  emphasized 
and  that  students  poorly  qualified  have  been 
allowed  to  enter  such  courses.  The  negro,  how 
ever  has  no  monopoly  of  this  false  policy  in  the 
South,  where  there  are  white  colleges  that  take 
men  from  the  plow  handles  and  teach  them  every 
thing  from  their  letters  "plumb  through"  to  the 
final  touches  of  classic  lore  in  the  remarkably 
short  time  of  four  years.  That  there  have  been 
mistakes  made  in  negro  education  cannot  be 
doubted.  The  question  for  us  to  consider,  how 
ever,  is  what  are  the  needs  of  a  rightly  directed 
collegiate  training  for  negroes.  It  seems  to  me 
there  are  three  classes  of  men  that  must  have  ad 
vanced  training;  these  are  the  ministers,  the 
teachers  and  the  professional  class,  including  phy 
sicians  and  dentists. 

Policy  of  Self  Help 

It  is  a  well  established  policy  of  all  missionary 
work  to  put  the  burden  of  responsibility  on  the 
natives  just  as  rapidly  as  representative  leaders 
can  be  trained  for  these  tasks.  The  same  policy 
has  been  followed  in  the  South  with  regard  to 
the  negro.  We  have  turned  over  to  the  negro 


THE   EDUCATION   OF  THE   NEGRO  10? 

preacher  the  development  of  the  religious  and 
moral  life  of  his  race ;  to  the  teacher  the  develop 
ment  of  its  intellectual  life;  and  as  rapidly  as 
possible  we  are  turning  over  to  their  physicians 
and  dentists  the  care  of  the  physical  well-being 
of  the  negro.  This  is  just  as  it  should  be,  but 
the  questions  of  supreme  importance  both  to  the 
colored  man  and  to  the  white  man  are :  Are  these 
leaders  competent  to  do  their  work?  Are  they 
sufficiently  educated  to  have  broad  sympathies 
and  clear  judgment  ?  Can  they  be  trusted  in  times 
of  crises  to  lead  their  people  aright?  These 
are  questions  of  tremendous  import.  In  the 
answer  to  them  much  of  the  well-being  and  peace 
of  the  South  depends. 

Trained  Ministers  Needed 

As  we  shall  see  in  a  later  chapter  the  negro 
minister  is  all  too  frequently  ignorant,  prejudiced, 
emotional,  and  even  immoral.  Education  does 
not  always  change  a  man's  morals,  and  yet  it 
may  be  said  to  the  credit  of  the  negro  educated 
ministers,  that  they  stand  head  and  shoul 
ders  above  the  general  mass  in  morals  and 
in  fair  mindedness.  No  negro  minister  can  be  a 
good  leader  of  his  people  who  does  not  know  the 
moving  of  God  in  history.  He  must  have  thor 
ough  training  in  the  Bible.  He  must  have  some 
acquaintance  with  the  laws  of  human  life.  In 
short,  the  negro  minister  must  have  much  of  the 
same  kind  of  training  that  our  white  ministers 
need,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  the  languages. 
Be  it  said  to  the  credit  of  most  of  the  negro  col 
leges  they  jut  more  stress  on  English,  history  and 


IO8  NEGRO  LIFE  IN   THE  SOUTH 

economics  than  on  the  more  impractical  branches. 
I  confess  I  am  disappointed  that  some  of  the 
catalogues  seem  to  indicate  an  overfondness  for 
Latin  and  Greek.  This,  however,  will  be  righted 
when  the  Southern  white  man  gives  sufficient 
study  to  this  whole  question  to  be  able  to  give 
sane  counsel. 

Physicians  and  Dentists  Needed 

In  another  chapter  we  have  referred  to  the  need 
of  better  medical  attention  among  negroes.  This 
can  be  had  only  through  a  well  trained  medical 
and  dental  fraternity  of  the  negro  race.  For  this 
purpose  we  must  have  well  equipped  and  well 
endowed  medical  and  dental  colleges. 

Trained  Teachers  Needed 

Lastly,  we  must  have  better  trained  negro 
teachers.  According  to  the  State  School  Com 
missioner  of  Georgia,  the  number  of  negro 
teachers  in  that  State  holding  normal  certificates 
in  1908  was  only  326.  Only  129  held  first  grade 
certificates,  476  held  second  grade  certificates, 
while  the  vast  majority,  2,037,  held  third  grade 
certificates.  When  one  remembers  the  exceed 
ingly  low  requirements  for  a  third  grade  certif 
icate,  it  is  no  wonder  that  negro  education  is  so 
inefficient,  and  apparently  shows  such  poor 
results. 

Broad  Culture  Needed 

It  is  coming  to  be  a  maxim  of  good  education 
that  the  elementary  teacher  needs  as  broad  cul 
ture  and  as  thorough  training  as  the  teacher  in 


THE  EDUCATION   OF  THE  NEGRO  109 

higher  branches.  Otherwise  the  teaching  in  the 
lower  grades  becomes  simply  a  process  of  ques 
tions  and  answers,  according  to  the  letter  of  the 
text  book.  In  order  that  there  may  be  a  more 
thorough  uplift  of  the  negro  child  there  must  be 
a  better  training  of  the  negro  teacher. 

Schools  of  Advanced  Standing 

Now  of  all  the  schools  that  are  attempting 
to  do  work  of  high  school  grade  and  upward,  not 
counting  public  schools,  including  all  the  indus 
trial  schools,  such  as  Tuskegee,  there  are  in  the 
former  slave  States,  plus  those  in  Ohio,  Penn 
sylvania,  Delaware,  New  Jersey  and  Oklahoma, 
just  135  institutions,  according  to  the  report  of 
the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  for 
1909.  These  schools  enroll  9,775  boys  and  13,734 
girls  of  elementary  grades,  7,751  boys  and  9,258 
girls  of  secondary  grade,  and  2,885  men  and 
1,300  women  of  collegiate  grade.1 

Leaders  in  Training 

In  other  words,  there  were  in  process  of  train 
ing  for  leadership  in  the  ministry,  teaching  and 
the  professions  only  2,885  men  m  tne  vear  1909. 
This  little  handful  of  men — not  so  many  as  the 
number  of  colored  teachers  in  the  single  State  of 
Georgia — are  to  be  the  leaders  of  9,000,000  col 
ored  people.  Surely  this  is  not  an  overcrowding 
in  the  realm  of  trained  leadership. 

Work  for  33  Colleges  and  their  Graduates 

Professor  DuBois,  in  the  report  of  the  Atlanta 
University  Conference  for  1902,  tabulates  thirty- 

1  "Report  of  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,"  1009. 


110  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

three  colleges  that  he  thinks  should  really 
bear  that  title.  From  these  colleges  up  to  1899 
there  have  been  graduated  2,008  negroes.  From 
the  Northern  universities  there  have  been 
graduated  several  hundred  more  (400?),  so  that 
from  all  sources  Professor  DuBois  estimates  there 
are  probably  2,500  negro  graduates  in  America. 
Of  this  number  probably  80  per  cent,  are  at 
work  in  the  South.  In  order  to  find  out  what 
these  college  graduates  do  an  investigation  was 
undertaken  by  Atlanta  University.  Letters  were 
written  to  all  the  2,500  college-bred  negroes  who 
could  be  located,  asking  their  occupation,  etc. 
1,312  sent  replies.  Of  this  number  701  or  53 
per  cent,  were  teachers,  221  or  17  per  cent,  were 
preachers,  83  or  6.3  per  cent,  were  physicians,  53 
or  4  per  cent,  were  in  Civil  Service  work,  and 
the  remainder  were  in  business,  farming,  secre 
tarial  positions,  etc.  *  Of  the  efficiency  of  these 
graduates  and  of  the  moral  worth,  Booker  T. 
Washington  writes :  "Not  a  single  graduate  of  the 
Hampton  Institute  or  of  the  Tuskegee  Institute 
can  be  found  to-day  in  any  jail  or  State  peniten 
tiary.  After  making  careful  inquiry,  I  cannot 
find  a  half-dozen  cases  of  a  man  or  a  woman 
who  has  completed  a  full  course  of  education  in 
any  of  our  reputable  institutions  like  Hampton, 
Tuskegee,  Fisk  or  Atlanta  who  are  in  prisons. 
The  records  of  the  South  show  that  90  per  cent, 
of  the  colored  people  in  prisons  are  without 
knowledge  of  trades,  and  61  per  cent,  are  illit 
erate."  * 

This  is  surely  a  splendid  showing,  and  should 


1  Atlanta   University   Publication,    No.    5,   passim. 

2  "Working  with  Hands,"  p.  235. 


THE   EDUCATION   OF  THE   NEGRO  III 

put  our  minds  at  ease  on  this  much-mooted  ques 
tion  of  the  higher  education  of  the  negro. 

Recommendations  of  Southern  Educational 
Association 

That  the  education  of  the  negro  is  not  a 
failure  is  well  indicated  by  the  resolutions  ad 
opted  by  the  Southern  Educational  Association 
at  its  meeting  in  1907 : 

"We  endorse  the  accepted  policy  of  the  States 
of  the  South  in  providing  educational  facilities 
for  the  youth  of  the  negro  race,  believing  that 
whatever  the  ultimate  solution  of  this  grievous 
problem  may  be,  education  must  be  an  important 
factor  in  that  solution." 

"We  believe  that  the  education  of  the  negro  in 
the  elementary  branches  of  education  should  be 
made  thorough,  and  should  include  specific  in 
struction  in  hygiene  and  home  sanitation,  for  the 
better  protection  of  both  races." 

"We  believe  that  in  the  secondary  education  of 
negro  youth,  emphasis  should  be  placed  upon 
agriculture  and  the  industrial  occupations,  in 
cluding  nurse  training,  domestic  science,  and 
home  economics." 

"We  believe  that  for  practical,  economical  and 
psychological  reasons  negro  teachers  should  be 
provided  for  negro  schools." 

"We  advise  instruction  in  normal  schools  and 
normal  institutions  by  white  teachers,  whenever 
possible,  and  closer  supervision  of  courses  of 
study  and  methods  of  teaching  in  negro  normal 
schools  by  the  State  Department  of  Education." 

"We  recommend  that  in  urban  and  rural  negro 
schools  there  should  be  closer  and  more  thorough 


112  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

supervision,  not  only  by  city  and  county  super 
intendents,  but  also  by  directors  of  music,  draw 
ing,  manual  training,  and  other  special  topics." 

"We  urge  upon  school  authorities  everywhere 
the  importance  of  adequate  buildings,  comfort 
able  seating,  and  sanitary  accommodations  for 
negro  youth." 

"We  deplore  the  isolation  of  many  negro 
schools,  established  through  motives  of  philan 
thropy,  from  the  life  and  the  sympathies  of  the 
communities  in  which  they  are  located.  We 
recommend  the  supervision  of  all  such  schools 
by  the  State,  and  urge  that  their  work  and  their 
methods  be  adjusted  to  the  civilization  in  which 
they  exist,  in  order  that  the  maximum  good  of 
the  race  and  of  the  community  may  be  thereby 
attained." 

"On  account  of  economics  and  psychological 
difference  in  the  two  races,  we  believe  that  there 
should  be  a  difference  in  courses  of  study  and 
methods  of  teaching,  and  that  there  should  be 
such  an  adjustment  of  school  curricula  as  shall 
meet  the  evident  needs  of  negro  youth." 

"We  insist  upon  such  an  equitable  distribution 
of  the  school  funds  that  all  the  youth  of  the 
negro  race  shall  have  at  least  an  opportunity  to 
receive  the  elementary  education  provided  by  the 
State,  and  in  the  administration  of  State  laws, 
and  in  the  execution  of  this  educational  policy,  we 
urge  patience,  tolerance  and  justice." 

Education  vs.  Ignorance 

It  has  never  been  found  in  all  the  world  that  a 
sane  and  thorough  intellectual  equipment  has 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  NEGRO  113 

been  detrimental  to  morals  or  to  industrial  effici 
ency.  The  negro  is  no  exception  to  this  rule.  It 
is  not  the  educated  negro  that  fills  our  peniten 
tiary  and  jails,  works  in  our  chain  gangs  and  fills 
our  poor-houses.  These  places  are  given  over 
to  the  ignorant  and  depraved.  It  is  not  the  edu 
cated  negro  that  makes  up  our  idle  and  vagrant 
class,  that  commits  our  murders  and  despoils 
our  women.  Here,  again,  it  is  the  illiterate  and 
degraded  negro.  The  trained  negro  lives  in  a 
better  home,  wears  better  clothes,  eats  better 
food,  does  more  efficient  work,  creates  more 
wealth,  rears  his  children  more  decently,  makes  a 
more  decent  citizen,  and  in  times  of  race  friction 
is  always  to  be  found  on  the  side  of  law  and 
order.  These  things  seem  to  be  worthy  fruits, 
and  whatever  system  produces  them  should  have 
our  approval.  If  we  are  to  be  fair  to  ourselves, 
fair  to  the  section  in  which  we  live,  and  fair  to 
the  negro  race,  we  must  see  that  a  common  school 
education  is  provided  for  all,  that  industrial  train 
ing  is  given  to  the  majority,  and  that  a  more 
thorough  and  complete  training  shall  be  given  to 
the  capable  few  who  are  to  become  the  leaders  of 
this  race. 


V 
THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  NEGRO 


RELIGION 

I  am  no  priest  of  crooks  nor  creeds, 
For  human  wants  and  human  needs 
Are  more  to  me  than  prophets'  deeds; 
And  human  tears  and  human  cares 
Affect  me  more  than  human  prayers. 

Go,  cease  your  wail,  lugubrious  saint! 
You  fret  high  Heaven  with  your  plaint. 
Is   this   the    "Christian's   joy"   you   paint? 
Is  this  the  Christian's  boasted  bliss? 
Avails  your  faith  no  more  than  this? 

Take  up  your  arms,  come  out  with  me, 
Let  Heav'n  alone;  humanity 
Needs  more  and  Heaven  less  from  thee. 
With  pity  for  mankind  look  'round; 
Help  them  to  rise— and  Heaven  is  found. 

—PAUL  LAURENCE  DUNBAR. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  NEGRO 

Religious  Index 

One  index  of  the  life  of  a  people  is  its  re 
ligion.  Find  the  context  of  that  term  and  you 
have  found  the  key  to  the  civilization  or  the  sav 
agery  of  a  people,  the  key  to  its  progress  or  its 
stagnation.  Not  only  the  content  of  a  religion 
but  the  attitude  of  a  people  toward  that  religion 
are  topics  of  supreme  importance  in  a  discussion 
such  as  this. 

What  is  Religion 

Professor  Rhys-Davids  contends  that  religion 
includes  three  conceptions,  "first,  beliefs  as  to 
internal  and  external  mysteries  (souls  and  gods) 
— second,  the  mental  attitudes  induced  by  these 
beliefs,  thirdly,  the  actions  and  conduct  depend 
ent  upon  both." 1 

Professor  Jevons  would  define  religion  as 
"man's  consciousness  of  a  supernatural  spirit  (or 
spirits)  having  affinity  with  his  own  spirit  and 
having  power  over  him." 2  Dr.  Tiele  says :  "The 
origin  of  religion  consists  in  the  fact  that  man  has 
the  Infinite  within  him  even  before  he  is  himself 

^'Buddhism:     American  Lectures,"  p.  4. 
'Introduction  to  the  "History  of  Religion,"  p.  15. 
117 


Il8  NEGRO  LIFE   IN   THE  SOVTH 

conscious  of  it,  and  whether  he  recognizes  it  or 
not."1 

Perhaps  we  may  define  religion  as  man's  con 
sciousness  of  a  higher  but  kindred  being  with 
whom  he  desires  and  ought  to  live  on  terms  of 
truest  fellowship.  If  such  be  in  any  sense  a  true 
definition  of  religion,  it  will  be  readily  seen  that 
such  consciousness  must  have  deep  meaning  for 
ever>  nation  as  well  as  for  every  individual. 

Nesro  Ancestry 

In  order  that  we  may  understand  the  religion 
of  the  present  negro,  we  must  take  a  look  at 
his  religious  life  in  his  fatherland.  According  to 
Mr.  Dowd2  the  races  of  Africa  fall  under  five  di 
visions.  First,  the  Negritos,  dwelling  in  the  low 
lands  of  the  central  equatorial  region ;  second,  the 
Negritians,  occupying  the  territory  of  the  Sudan ; 
third,  the  Fellatahs,  scattered  among  the  Negri 
tians  of  Central  Sudan;  fourth,  the  Bantus,  oc 
cupying  almost  all  the  Western  portion  of  the 
continent,  south  of  the  fourth  degree  of  north 
latitude;  and  fifth,  the  Gallas,  occupying  the 
southeastern  portion  of  Africa.  It  was  from  the 
fourth  division,  the  Bantus,  that  most  of  the 
slaves  were  brought  to  America,  and  it  is  among 
these  same  tribes  that  the  atrocities  of  the  rubber 
and  ivory  trade  have  recently  been  perpetrated. 

God's  Self-Revelation 

It  is  generally  agreed  now  by  anthropologists, 
I  believe,  that  there  are  no  races,  however  rude, 

1  "Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion,"  Vol.  2,  p.  3®. 

2  "The  Negro  Races,"  p.  n. 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE  OF  THE   NEGRO         11$ 

that  are  destitute  of  all  idea  of  religion.1  It  is 
further  agreed,  I  believe,  by  most  Christian  think 
ers  that  God  has  always  been  trying  and  still  is 
trying  to  make  Himself  known  to  all  men.  That 
this  revelation  is  not  equally  clear  and  without 
admixture  for  all  men  need  not  cause  surprise, 
for  the  content  of  a  message  is  not  determined 
alone  by  the  speaker,  but  by  the  varying  capaci 
ties  and  degrees  of  attention  on  the  part  of  the 
listeners.  That  the  Bantu  tribes  have  some  con 
ception  of  God — however  crude  it  may  seem — 
is  not  doubted  by  those  that  have  worked  among 
them  longest  and  known  them  best. 

"Standing  in  the  village  street,  surrounded  by 
a  company  whom  their  chief  has  graciously  sum 
moned  at  my  request,  I  do  not  need  to  begin  by 
telling  them  that  there  is  a  God.  Looking  on  that 
motley  assembly  of  villagers — the  bold,  gaunt 
cannibal  with  his  armament  of  gun,  spear,  and 
dagger;  the  artisan  with  rude  adz  in  hand,  or 
hands  soiled  at  the  antique  bellows  of  the  village 
smithy ;  women  who  have  hastened  from  their 
kitchen  fire  with  hands  white  with  the  manioc 
dough  or  still  grasping  the  partly  scaled  fish — 
I  have  yet  to  be  asked,  'Who  is  God?'  "2 

"The  belief  in  one  great  Supreme  Being  is  uni 
versal.  Nor  is  this  idea  held  imperfectly  or  ob 
scurely  developed  in  their  minds.  The  impression 
is  so  deeply  engraved  upon  their  moral  and  men 
tal  nature  that  any  system  of  Atheism  strikes 

1Jevons'   "Introduction   to   the    History  of   Religion/' 
p.  7. 
'"Fetichism  in  West  Africa,"  Nassau,  p.  36. 


120  NEGRO  LIFE  IN   THE  SOUTH 

them  as  too  absurd  and  preposterous  to  require 
a  denial."1 

Debased  Conception  of  God 

But,  of  course,  this  conception  of  God  is  much 
debased  and  mixed  with  many  superstitions. 
They  do  not  think  of  God  as  a  father  who  loves 
and  cares  for  his  children,  but  as  a  vague  being 
responsible  for  man's  existence,  but  caring 
little  for  man's  destiny.  "The  prevailing  notion 
seems  to  be  that  God,  after  having  made  the 
world  and  filled  it  with  inhabitants,  retired  to 
some  remote  corner  of  the  universe,  and  has 
allowed  the  affairs  of  the  world  to  come  under 
the  control  of  evil  spirits;  and  hence  the  only 
religious  worship  that  is  ever  performed  is  di 
rected  to  these  spirits,  the  object  of  which  is  to 
court  their  favor,  or  ward  off  the  evil  effects  of 
their  displeasure."2 

Spirits 

The  spirits  are  of  three  classes  as  to  origin. 
First,  those  existing  from  eternity — those  con 
terminous  with  the  Supreme  being  —  Paia- 
Njambi;  second,  those  created  by  the  Supreme 
Being;  third,  the  souls  of  dead  human  beings. 
These  spirits  fill  the  air  and  inhabit  the  rocks, 
the  caverns,  the  trees  and  even  take  up  their 
abode  in  wild  animals.  Graveyards  are  their 
favorite  abiding  places,  hence  every  native  stands 
in  fear  of  such  grounds. 

1  Wilson's  "Western  Africa,"  p.  39. 
3  Idem,  p.  39- 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE  OF  THE   NEGRO          121 

Origin  of  Belief  in  Spirits 

The  original  conception  of  spirits  probably 
arose  from  two  sources.  First,  all  savages  be 
lieve  that  not  only  plants  and  animals  have  spirits 
but  also  inanimate  things.  Whatever  moves  has 
life — has  a  spirit.  The  stream  as  it  runs  and 
sings,  the  lightning  as  it  flashes  or  strikes,  the 
flame  as  it  flickers  or  consumes  the  wood  are  all 
supposed  to  be  alive.  Not  only  so,  but  the  rock 
against  which  man  falls  and  it  cuts  him,  the  tree 
which  seems  to  spring  of  itself  out  of  the  ground, 
and  numerous  other  objects  have  life  within 
them.  Thus  animism — the  imputing  of  spirits 
to  objects  of  nature — has  its  rise,  and  from  this 
it  is  a  short  step  to  the  fear  and  worship  of 
spirits. 

Secondly,  the  idea  of  spirits  arises  from  man's 
experiences  in  dreams.  These  experiences  to  the 
savage  are  as  real  as  any  waking  experience. 
While  he  sleeps  his  spirit  wanders — it  meets  the 
spirits  of  friends  and  they  recognize  each  other ; 
when  he  wakes  he  is  perfectly  sure  that  he  has 
seen  and  talked  with  his  friend.  But  he  is  told 
that  his  body  has  been  in  his  bed — well,  then,  his 
spirit  has  been  journeying  at  will.  When  he 
wakes — this  is  just  the  return  of  his  spirit  to 
his  body.  Hence  death  is  simply  a  continued 
sleep,  where  the  spirit  refuses  to  return  to  its 
body.  When  a  man  dies,  therefore,  his  spirit  is 
set  wandering,  having  power  to  help  or  harm 
where  it  pleases.  His  spirit  may  take  up  its 
abode  in  an  animal  and  return  to  vex  the  life  of 
his  enemies  or  even  his  own  family.  Dr.  Nassau 
tells  us  of  a  native  who  refused  to  kill  an  ele- 


122  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

phant  that  was  ravaging  his  crop,  because  he 
thought  his  dead  father's  spirit  had  taken  up  its 
abode  in  that  particular  animal. 

Character  of  Spirits 

The  character  of  these  disembodied  spirits  is 
the  same  as  the  characters  of  the  living  men. 
They  are  benevolent  or  malevolent,  full  of  kind 
ness  or  full  of  hatred,  in  accordance  with  their 
former  existence.  If  they  have  been  slighted 
while  in  their  embodied  form,  they  may  come 
back  to  take  revenge  on  their  enemies.  The  fact 
that  these  spirits  have  not  the  encumbrance  of 
a  body  may  make  them  ten  times  more  powerful 
than  any  living  man,  and  the  further  fact  that 
they  can  act  without  detection  throws  about  the 
life  of  the  native  African  a  constant  dread  and 
fear  which  is  almost  paralyzing. 

Origin  of  Magic  Witch  Doctors 

The  one  recourse  of  the  savage  is  to  placate 
these  spirits,  winning  their  favor  and  warding 
off  their  anger.  This  gives  rise  to  a  complicated 
system  of  magic.  In  order  to  protect  himself 
against  the  anger  of  these  spirits,  the  native 
employs  the  services  of  the  witch  doctor.  This 
witch  doctor  or  medicine  man  is  supposed  to  have 
great  power  over  evil  spirits.  They  have  power 
to  condemn  to  death  any  person  suspected  of 
causing  death;  they  are  supposed  to  be  able  to 
drive  out  the  spirits  that  cause  sickness;  they 
may  call  back  the  spirits  of  those  near  unto 
death — for  all  of  which  services  they  demand 
great  respect  and  large  fees. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE   NEGRO         123 

Meaning  of  Fetiches 

One  of  the  chief  methods  of  work  of  the  medi 
cine  man  or  witch  doctor  is  the  preparation  and 
use  of  fetiches.  A  fetich  is  any  rag,  string, 
stone,  shell,  tooth,  piece  of  wood  or  what  not, 
into  which  a  magic  doctor  has  coaxed  a  spirit  to 
take  up  its  abode,  or  into  which  a  spirit  has  vol 
untarily  entered.  The  material  in  itself  is  not 
sacred,  but  the  fact  that  a  spirit  dwells  in  it 
gives  it  power  to  ward  off  sickness  or  defend  one 
against  his  enemies.  If  the  spirit  leaves  the 
fetich  then  the  wood  or  stone  is  cast  away  and 
another  is  found.  "He  addresses  his  prayer  to 
it  and  extols  its  virtues ;  but  should  his  enter 
prise  not  prosper  he  will  cast  his  deity  aside  as 
useless,  and  cease  to  worship  it;  he  will  address 
it  with  torrents  of  abuse,  and  will  even  beat  it, 
to  make  it  serve  him  better.  It  is  a  deity  at  his 
disposal,  to  serve  in  the  accomplishment  of  his 
desires;  the  individual  keeps  gods  of  his  own  to 
help  him  in  his  undertakings."  3 

White  and  Black  Art 

So  long  as  these  fetiches  are  used  simply  for 
protection  the  owner  is  a  practicer  of  white  art, 
but,  when  they  are  used  to  injure  others  or  force 
others  to  do  certain  things  pleasing  to  the  owner 
of  the  fetich,  their  possessor  is  said  to  practice 
black  art.  It  is  this  latter  that  keeps  the  Afri 
can  native  in  constant  fear.  At  any  hour 
his  enemy  may  by  witchcraft  destroy  his  prop 
erty,  rob  him  of  his  friends  or  take  his  life.  All 
that  an  enemy  has  to  do  is  to  get  some  of  his 

'History  of  Religion."    p.  32.    Menzies. 


124  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

victim's  hair,  his  nails,  or  water  in  which  he 
has  bathed,  and  have  a  witch  doctor  make  a  con 
coction  which,  buried  in  front  of  the  victim's 
door  or  secretly  hung  in  his  room,  will  bring 
sure  death.  If  the  man  dies,  this  black  art  has 
worked ;  if  he  fails  to  die,  then  he  himself  has  a 
fetich  stronger  than  the  spirit  that  was  trying  to 
induce  his  death.  In  this  murderous  supersti 
tion  the  natives  have  absolute  confidence. 

Religious  Constituents 

These,  then,  are  the  constituents  of  the  African 
religion:  A  God  who  created  man  and  is  su 
preme,  but  who  has  gone  away  into  the  corner 
of  the  universe  and  is  no  longer  interested  in 
his  creation ;  an  infinite  host  of  spirits,  good  and 
bad,  which  hold  the  destinies  of  men  in  their 
hands  and  whose  favor  must,  therefore,  be  won ; 
witch  doctors  and  medicine  men  who  conjure 
with  the  spirits  and  keep  the  people  in  constant 
awe;  fetiches  which  are  the  habitats  of  spirits 
used  for  protection ;  and  the  practice  of  black  art 
with  all  of  its  murderous  motives  and  deeds. 
Of  course,  there  are  elements  of  moral  power  in 
this  religion,  but  so  much  is  it  degraded  that  one 
almost  wonders  if  God  has  been  able  to  reveal 
himself  in  the  smallest  degree  to  these  people. 

Religion  of  the  Slave 

When  the  Bantu  slave  was  brought  to  Amer 
ica  he  brought  with  him  all  the  superstitions,  all 
the  wild  savagery  of  his  religion.  One  does 
not  need  to  go  far  to  find  that  this  religion  still 
has  its  remnants  in  the  life  of  the  negro  race  of 


THE   RELIGIOUS   LIFE  OF  THE   NEGRO         125 

to-day.  In  particular  the  fetich  held  sway  among 
these  benighted  people — as  is  still  exemplified 
in  the  carrying  of  the  rabbit  foot  and  other 
relics  for  the  sake  of  warding  off  evil.  "Not  only 
did  this  religion  of  the  fetich  endure  under  slav 
ery,  it  grew.  It  was  a  secret  religion  that  lurked 
thinly  covered  in  slavery  days,  and  that  lurks  to 
day  beneath  the  negro's  Christian  profession  as  a 
white  art,  and  among  non-professors  as  a  black 
art;  a  memory  of  the  revenges  of  his  African 
ancestors." '  Thousands  of  negroes  still  believe 
implicitly  in  hoodoos,  spirits,  witchcraft,  ghosts. 
In  the  city  of  Nashville,  some  years  ago,  a  group 
of  medical  students  went  out  to  "snatch"  a  body 
for  dissecting  purposes.  They  were  piloted  by  a 
negro  man  who  betrayed  them  into  the  hands  of 
a  band  of  armed  negroes.  In  the  dark  of  the 
night  the  armed  negroes  shot  into  the  party  and 
accidentally  killed  the  negro  pilot.  Since  that 
time  the  house  which  he  then  occupied  has  not 
been  used.  No  negro  will  rent  it  for  fear  of 
being  troubled  by  the  spirit  of  the  dead  man 
who  was  killed  because  of  treachery.  A  negro 
that  has  had  considerable  schooling  and  has  had 
employment  among  white  people  for  years  told 
me  that  the  spirit  of  this  man  could  be  heard 
every  night  moaning  and  crying  in  the  house 
where  he  had  formerly  lived.  As  a  test  I  offered 
this  negro  five  dollars  to  go  with  me  at  mid 
night  into  this  house,  which  he  refused,  saying 
he  would  not  go  for  five  hundred.  This  seems 
to  me  purely  a  survival  of  the  old  African  spirit 
belief.  Hoodoo  or  Voodoo  (French  Creole 
1  "Fetichism  in  West  Africa,  p.  274.  Nassau. 


126  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Vaudois — the  witchcraft  of  the  Waldensians)  is 
no  more  nor  less  than  the  survival  of  the  black 
art,  against  which  a  fetich  or  charm  must  be 
carried, 

"And  you's  got  a  rabbit  foot  to  drive  away 
the  Hoodoo!" 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  stories  of  Uncle 
Remus  are  direct  descendants  of  the  folk  tales 
which  lived  centuries  ago  in  Africa.  In  fact, 
many  of  the  superstitions  of  the  uneducated  ne 
gro  of  to-day  can  be  traced  directly  back  to  the 
African  home  of  the  slave. 

Tenacity  of  Religious  Tradition 

Religious  tradition  outlives  all  others,  and  may 
manifest  itself  long  after  its  origin  or  meaning 
is  forgotten.  We  need  not  be  surprised,  there 
fore,  if  we  find  the  religious  life  of  the  Amer 
ican  negro  filled  with  superstition  and  less  re 
lated  to  morals  than  our  own  ethical  sense  would 
demand.  We  must  remember  that  New  England 
did  not  throw  off  her  witchcraft  for  many  years 
and  not  all  the  white  people  of  the  South  are 
free  from  belief  in  a  hoodoo. 

Grades  of  Religious  Life 

It  must  be  understood  that  negro  religious 
life,  like  any  other  religious  life,  varies  widely. 
There  are  many  well  educated  and  cultured  ne 
groes  who  have  moved  far  away  from  all  the 
superstitions,  and  in  whose  lives  their  religion  is 
a  vital  moral  force.  Of  these  we  will  speak  more 
at  length  under  religious  development.  We  are 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE  OF  THE   NEGRO         127 

here  concerned  about  the  elemental  types  of  ne 
gro  religion. 

Characterization  of  Negro  Religion 

From  what  has  preceded  we  are  prepared  to 
believe  that  the  religion  of  the  masses  may  be 
characterized  as  partly  superstitious,  largely 
emotional,  and  in  an  alarmingly  small  degree 
ethical.  Perhaps  enough  has  been  said  to  in 
dicate  the  bearing  of  superstition  upon  religion. 
The  negro  has  a  tropical  imagination  which 
revels  in  the  strange,  mysterious  or  supernatural, 
and  this  type  of  mind,  touched  with  a  deep  emo 
tionalism  and  augmented  by  ignorance,  may  easily 
give  rise  to  the  most  grotesque  types  of  religious 
belief. 

Emotional  Element 

The  emotionalism  of  the  negro  religion — I 
mean  the  religion  of  the  great  masses  who  are 
ignorant — is  well  known  to  every  Southern  man. 
I  have  visited  negro  churches  where  the  sermon 
could  scarcely  be  called  more  than  a  wild  chant 
or  incantation.  The  high  shrieking  voice  of  the 
preacher  as  he  calls  over  and  over  again  the 
refrain  of  his  text  in  dull  monotony — is  inter 
rupted  continually  by  the  heavy  groans  and  occa 
sionally  by  the  weird  cry  of  a  happy  "mourner." 
Professor  DuBois  describes  his  first  negro 
camp  meeting  as  follows :  "A  sort  of  sup 
pressed  terror  hung  in  the  air,  and  seemed  to 
seize  us — a  pythian  madness,  a  demoniac  pos 
session,  that  lent  terrible  reality  to  song  and 
words.  The  black  and  massive  form  of  the 


128  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

preacher  swayed  and  quivered  as  the  words 
crowded  to  his  lips  and  flew  at  us  in  singular 
eloquence.  The  people  moaned  and  fluttered,  and 
then  the  gaunt-cheeked  brown  woman  beside  me 
suddenly  leaped  straight  into  the  air  and  shrieked 
like  a  lost  soul,  while  round  about  came  wail 
and  groan  and  outcry  and  a  scene  of  human  pas 
sion  such  as  I  had  never  before  conceived."  * 

Mr.  L.  C.  Perry,  in  a  sociological  study  of  the 
negro,  printed  in  the  Vanderbilt  University 
Quarterly,  April,  1904,  gives  the  following  ac 
count  of  a  service  in  one  of  the  cruder  churches 
of  Nashville:  "A  very  warm  evening.  Every 
seat  in  the  house  packed  and  most  of  the  stand 
ing  room  occupied.  Two  stoves  nearly  red  hot 
and  the  door  kept  tightly  shut.  Text :  'And  the 
Lord  spoke  to  Daniel  in  the  valley  of  dry  bones, 
saying,  Rise  ye  up  and  meet  me.'  The  sermon 
began  something  like  this:  'Brethren  and  sis 
ters,  I  started  out  early  one  morning,  a  long  time 
ago,  and  knew  not  witherward  I  was  going  for  the 
Lord  was  leading  of  me  in  ways  unbeknownst  to 
me,  henceward  I  went  on  and  on  till  finally  when 
the  day  got  hot  I  came  down  into  the  valley  of 
Jehosaphat.  And  as  I  went  down  the  slippery 
walls  of  that  slimy  valley  my  weary  feet  slided 
over  rottening  bones  of  many  hell-parched  sin 
ners.  I  fell  not,  though  the  valley  was  full  of 
pits  and  horrible  falls;  I  fell  not,  for  a  band  of 
holy  angels  were  rustling  their  wings  around 
me  to  bear  me  upward  and  onward  to  meet  my 
God,  and  they  bore  me  on  and  I  came  to  my 
Lord,  and  he  was '  Here  followed  a  descrip- 

1  "Souls  of  Black  Folk,"  p.  190. 


THE   RELIGIOUS    LIFE   OF   THE   NEGRO          I2Q 

tion  of  his  meeting  the  Lord;  but  what  he  said 
could  not  be  understood,  for  his  voice  was 
drowned  by  the  shouts  of  twenty-five  or  more 
people.  Then  my  Lord  told  me  to  come  here 
to  Nashville,  to  Kayne  Avenue,  and  preach  to 
his  chosen  lambs  for  to  rise  up  and  meet  their 

God '    Then  much  more  shouting,  which,  in 

fact,  never  entirely  died  out  at  any  time,  and  only 
at  intervals  allowed  the  speaker  to  be  heard.  The 
harangue  lasted  in  this  strain  for  an  hour  and 
a  half  without  touching  the  ground." 

Negro  Prayers 

"The  prayers  are  often  more  offensive  than  the 
sermon.  Bass  Street  Church,  first  Sunday  even 
ing  in  May.  A  very  small  house,  only  forty- 
five  present,  and  six  of  them  preachers.  The 
pastor  called  on  one  of  the  young  preachers  to 
pray.  He  prayed  eleven  minutes,  and,  after  the 
first,  few  sentences,  fell  into  a  perfectly  uniform 
mode  of  expression  and  montonous  chant.  His 
sentences  were  all  alike,  with  the  exception  of 
only  one  clause  in  each.  "O !  Lord,  my  God, 
wilt  thou  be  so  good  and  so  kind  and  so  merciful 
as  to  condescend  as  to  bless  us  ?  O !  Lord,  my 
God,  wilt  thou  be  so  good  and  so  kind  and  so 
merciful  as  to  condescend  as  to  bless  our  little 
children?"  And  on  and  on  with  the  use  of  this 
same  expression  till  a  blessing  had  been  invoked 
on  everything  imaginable,  from  the  stars  in 
heaven  even  to  the  pavements  of  the  streets, 
while  at  the  same  time  another  preacher  was 
keeping  up  a  symmetrical  chant  of  response: 
"O !  yes,  Lord  grant  it ;  O !  do  Lord,  amen  and 


I3O  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

amen.  O !  yes,  Lord  grant  it ;  O !  do  Lord,  amen 
and  amen."  And  a  layman,  presumably  so  from 
his  position  out  in  the  congregation,  also  kept  a 
chant  going;  but  he  uttered  no  word  that  could 
be  distinguished,  though  at  certain  evenly  meas 
ured  intervals  his  voice  rose  very  high.  And 
then,  besides  all  of  this,  there  was  another  man 
whose  action  is  hard  to  describe  or  name.  He  was 
perfectly  quiet  except  at  well-measured  points 
in  the  prayer,  about  twenty  seconds  apart,  when 
he  raised  a  hideous,  indescribable  snort,  more 
like  the  sound  of  an  animal  than  a  human  being. 
The  effect  of  all  this  was  weird,  and  one  often 
had  to  pull  himself  together  to  realize  that  he 
was  still  in  Nashville  and  had  not  been  suddenly 
transported  to  Africa." 

Lack  of  Ethical  Content 

Naturally,  a  superstitious  and  emotional  re 
ligion  does  not  do  much  to  affect  the  standard  of 
morals.  It  is  not  simply  a  discrepancy  between 
creed  and  practice,  as  Kelly  Miller  puts  it,  for 
that  is  found  often  among  whites,  but,  with  the 

(mass  of  the  negroes,  religion  is  lacking  both 
in  ethical  creed  and  ethical  practice.  Religion 
is  a  thing  to  die  by  and  not  to  live  by.  It 
,  has  reference  to  states  of  ecstacy  but  little  to 
[  do  with  a  man's  state  of  morals.  A  negro  man 
of  much  more  than  average  sense — one  whom  I 
have  known  for  years  and  have  never  known  him 
to  be  dishonest  or  untruthful — said  to  me  about 
his  preacher  lately :  "He's  a  purty  good  lecturer, 
but  he  can't  preach  much."  When  I  questioned 
him  I  found  he  meant  that  his  preacher  was  good 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE  OF  THE   NEGRO         13! 

at  making  appeals  for  honesty,  purity,  sobriety, 
etc.,  but  he  did  not  use  much  "gravy"  as  they 
call  the  sing-song  chant  and  hysterical  oratory. 
A  teacher  in  a  negro  college  told  me  once  that 
many  of  their  graduates  went  out  with  the  idea 
of  preaching  a  real  gospel  of  moral  life,  but  the 
pressure  from  the  congregations  they  served 
was  so  great  that  they  frequently  had  to 
abandon  their  gospel  and  more  and  more  fall 
into  the  habit  of  putting  on  the  "rousements." 

Rev.  W.  H.  Holloway's  Testimony 

Rev.  W.  H.  Holloway,  a  graduate  of  Talladega 
College,  a  Congregational  minister  in  charge  of 
a  colored  church  in  Thomas  County,  Ga.,  in  a 
study  of  the  negro  church  in  that  county,  writes 
as  follows: 

"The  supreme  element  in  the  old  system  was 
emotionalism,  and  while  we  hate  to  confess  it 
truth  demands  that  we  affirm  it  as  the  predom 
inating  element  to-day.  The  church  which  does 
not  have  its  shouting,  the  church  which  does 
not  measure  the  abilities  of  a  preacher  by  the 
'rousement'  of  his  sermons,  and,  indeed,  which 
does  not  tacitly  demand  of  its  minister  the  shout- 
producing  discourse,  is  an  exception  to  the  rule. 
This  is  true  of  the  towns  as  well  as  the  country. 
Of  course,  we  all  understand  that  it  has  always 
occupied  first  place  in  the  worship  of  the  negro 
church;  it  is  a  heritage  of  the  past.  In  the  ab 
sence  of  clearly  defined  doctrines,  the  great  shout, 
accompanied  with  weird  cries  and  shrieks  and 
contortions  and  followed  by  a  multivaried  'ex 
perience'  which  takes  the  candidate  through  the 


132  NEGRO  LIFE   IN   THE   SOUTH 

most  heart-rending  scenes — this  to-day  in  Thomas 
County  is  accepted  by  the  majority  of  the  churches 
as  unmistakable  evidence  of  regeneration." 

I  spoke  some  time  since  at  a  negro  university 

on  sins  of  men  and  after  the  address  the  negro 

physician,  himself  a  Christian  man,  told  me  that 

ninety-eight  per  cent,  was  too  low  an  estimate 

for  the  negro  men  who  live  or  have  lived  impure 

lives,  and  yet  forty-eight  per  cent,  of  them  are 

.church  members.     This  divorcement  of  religion 

j  and  morals  is  perhaps  the  most  serious  phase  of 

i  the  negro  problem. 

Encouragement  in  Spite  of  this  Picture 

I  am  well  aware  that  I  have  not  drawn  a 
bright  picture.  A  religion  divorced  from  morals, 
with  intense  emotionalism  and  with  crudest  su 
perstitions  is  not  altogether  a  hopeful  factor  in 
developing  a  race.  One  does  not  like  to  write 
such  a  statement  but  one  must  be  true  to  facts. 
And  yet  all  is  not  hopeless.  There  is  a  brighter 
side  to  the  picture.  It  is  surely  hopeful  that 
such  a  large  proportion  of  the  negroes  are  re 
ligious,  that  the  religious  hunger  is  planted  deep 
in  their  nature.  When  there  is  a  hungering  and 
thirsting,  there  is  a  chance  that  men  may  be 
filled.  This  very  fact  of  the  religious  nature  of  the 
negro  gives  the  surest  indication  that  he  can  be 
helped,  that  he  can  be  moralized,  that  he  can  be 
made  into  a  true  citizen.  We  only  need  to  help 
him  purify  his  ideas  of  religion,  and  that  is  never 
so  difficult  a  task  as  to  create  a  capacity  for  re 
ligious  truth. 

A  Progressive  Minority 

There  is  a  second  sign  of  hope  in  the  fact  that 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  NEGRO         133 

there  is  a  growing  minority  of  the  race  with  a 
religion  of  moral  content.  I  heard  a  sermon  by 
a  negro  preacher  recently  on  the  text :  "I  am  the 
way,  the  truth  and  the  life."  It  was  clear,  logical 
and  full  of  practical  suggestion.  It  is  sheer 
pessimism,  if  not  ignorant  prejudice,  or  perhaps 
it  is  both,  to  say  that  religion  with  all  negroes  is 
divorced  from  morality.  I  know  negroes — even 
uneducated  negroes — whose  religion  means  hon 
esty,  truthfulness,  and  purity.  I  know  negroes 
of  culture  with  whom  religion  has  as  much  of 
content  as  it  has  for  the  cultured  white  man. 
This  is  the  foundation  for  a  real  hope.  If  a 
minority  has  moved  up  into  a  realm  of  genuine 
religion,  then  the  mass,  with  sufficient  cultivation 
and  care,  may  be  brought  into  the  same  realm. 
If  any  considerable  minority  is  capable  of  know 
ing  and  practicing  genuine  religious  truth,  there 
is  possibility  of  redeeming  the  whole  race  from 
its  ignorance,  its  superstition  and  its  immoral 
ity.  If  anyone  doubts  that  there  is  such  a  minor 
ity  the  one  way  to  convince  himself  is  to  visit 
some  of  the  best  negro  churches  and  see  for 
himself.  Let  him  come  to  know  some  of  the 
best  negroes  and  watch  their  conduct  and  even 
the  most  skeptical  will  be  convinced. 

These  two  pictures  put  on  every  man  who 
reads  an  obligation.  If  there  is  a  minority  with 
a  real  religion  of  moral  and  spiritual  content, 
and  if  there  is  a  great  mass  with  a  religion  of 
low  moral  and  low  spiritual  content,  then  it  is 
our  duty  as  enlightened  Christian  men  to  give 
to  this  second  class  a  vital  Gospel. l 


*Cf.     Chapter  I. 


134  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

The  Missionary  Appeal 

The  greatest  appeal  that  a  missionary  from  the 
heart  of  Africa,  or  of  China,  or  of  India,  can 
make  is  this :  "The  people  are  in  ignorance,  they 
are  in  sin,  their  religions  are  full  of  errors,  they 
do  not  know  our  God — we  have  a  real  gospel  of 
life  and  we  must  take  it  to  them,  for  they  are 
capable  of  receiving  and  are  glad  to  hear."  This 
is  precisely  the  appeal  that  can  be  made  on  be 
half  of  the  lower  half  of  the  negroes  at  our  very 
doors.  It  is  splendid  to  have  a  missionary  spirit, 
but  God  knows  no  home  or  foreign  lands — he 
simply  knows  that  a  black  man  in  America  may 
be  as  needy  as  a  black  man  in  Africa  and  His 
Gospel  will  help  both  alike. 

The  Negro  Church 

The  embodied  expression  of  religion  is  the 
Church  and  no  discussion  of  negro  religion  would 
be  complete  without  some  word  about  church 
life.  In  the  early  days  of  slavery  in  America 
there  was  great  question  as  to  whether  slaves 
should  be  allowed  to  receive  baptism  or  to  join 
the  church,  lest  such  action  might  make  them 
free.  It  always  seemed  somewhat  incongruous 
for  a  man  who  was  a  Christian  and  a  church 
member  to  be  a  slave.  However,  Virginia,  in 
1667,  passed  a  law  that  "Baptism  doth  not  alter 
the  condition  of  the  person  as  to  his  bondage  or 
freedom,  in  order  that  divers  masters  freed  from 
this  doubt  may  more  carefully  endeavor  the 
propagation  of  Christianity."3  North  Carolina 
passed  a  similar  law  in  1670  and  so  the  propaga 
tion  of  Christianity  among  slaves  went  on. 

i  "The    Negro   Church,"   p.   8. 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE   OF  THE   NEGRO          135 

The  Church  in  Slave  Days 

Most  of  the  converted  slaves  belonged  to  the! 
white  churches  since  it  was  feared  that  separate/   \ 
churches  would  give  too  great  opportunity  for\ 
the  stirring  up  of  discontent  and  strife.    Indeed, 
a  number  of  the  States  went  so  far  as  to  make  it 
a  finable  offense   for  any  master  to  allow  his 
slaves  to  build  or  worship  in  a  separate  church. 
However,  the  records  show  that  "various  mas 
ters  had  their  own  ministers  whom  they  paid  to 
instruct  their  slaves  in  religious  matters." 

Early  Work.     Moravians 

The  Moravians  early  began  a  missionary  work 
among  the  negroes.  As  early  as  1735  mission 
aries  were  sent  into  South  Carolina  and  Georgia 
to  preach  the  gospel.  Work  was  also  undertaken 
among  the  negroes  of  Philadelphia. 

Presbyterians 

The  Presbyterians,  under  the  leadership  of 
Rev.  Samuel  Davis,  began  work  in  Virginia  be 
fore  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  In 
1755  Dr.  Davis  writes:  "A  considerable  number 
of  them  had  been  baptized,  after  a  proper  time 
for  instruction,  having  given  creditable  evidence 
not  only  of  their  acquaintance  with  the  important 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion,  but  also  a 
deep  sense  of  them  in  their  minds,  attested  by  a 
life  of  strict  piety  and  holiness."1 

Methodists 

In  1776  the  Methodists  began  work  in  Vir 
ginia  and  in  the  great  revivals  that  followed 

J"The  Negro  Church,"  p.  17. 


136  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

many  negroes,  along  with  the  whites,  were  con- 

j  verted.     The  minutes  of  the  Methodist  Confer- 

I  ence   for    1786   show   a  membership   of    18,791 

I  whites  and  1890  colored.     In  1791,  there  were 

\  12,884  colored  members  reported;  in  1792,  there 

\vere  13,871 ;  in  1793,  there  were  16,227;  m  X794» 

there  were  13,814;  in  1795,  12,179.    The  decrease 

in  numbers  is  probably  due  to  the  great  revivals 

in  the  Baptist  Church  during  the  last  two  years 

mentioned,  and  the  preaching  of  colored  ministers 

which  drew  many  members  from  other  churches 

into  the  Baptist  fold.     According  to  the  order 

of  the  conference  of   1790  the  Bishops,  elders 

and  preachers  were  to  appoint  leaders  for  schools 

to  be  taught  on  Sundays  from  6:00  to  10:00  A.M. 

and  from  2:00  to  6:00  P.M.,  in  which  all  colored 

children  who  desired  might  be  taught  to  read 

the  Bible. 

Baptists 

Between  1785  and  1792  during  the  great  Bap 
tist  revivals  many  negroes  were  converted  and 
brought  into  the  Baptist  Church.  In  1792  the 
first  colored  Baptist  church  was  built  in  the  city 
of  Charleston,  the  city  contributing  the  lot.  This 
denomination  had  had  negro  preachers  for  twenty 
years  prior  to  this  time. 

Awakening  of  1830 

About  1830  there  was  a  great  revival  of  in 
terest  among  all  the  churches  of  the  South  in 
the  evangelization  of  the  slaves.  "A  reaction 
set  in  about  1835,  and  the  Methodists  and  Bap 
tists  especially  were  active  among  the  slaves. 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE  OF  THE   NEGRO         137 

A  minister  in  Mississippi  testified  that  he  had 
charge  of  the  negroes  of  five  plantations  and 
three  hundred  slaves ;  another  in  Georgia  visited 
eighteen    plantations    every    two    weeks.      'Two 
owners  have  built  three  good  churches  at  their 
own  expense,  all  framed,  290  members  have  been 
added,  and  about  400  children  are  instructed.' 
Another   traveling   minister   declared,    in    1841, 
that  in  many  places  like  Baltimore,  Alexandria, 
and  Charleston,  the  negroes  had  large  spacious 
churches,  and  he  thinks  there  were  500,000  negro 
church  members  at  the  time."  :     Whether  this  is 
an  overestimation  or  not  we  cannot  determine^- 
but  it  indicates  that  the  Southern  churches  and  I  * 
the  owners  of  slaves  were  far  from  unmindful  of  J 
their  duty  to  look  after  the  moral  life  of  the! 
slaves. 

In  1860,  according  to  Bishop  McTyiere,  the 
number  of  slaves  that  were  members  of  the 
Southern  conferences  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  were  207.000.  This  church  alone  through 
its  conference  in  the  Southern  States  contrib 
uted  between  the  years  of  1844  and  1860,  inclu 
sive,  $1,320,778.03  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
slaves.  In  the  year  1861  this  church  alone  had 
327  missionaries  among  the  negroes  and  spent 
$86,359.20. ' 

Organization  of  Separate  Negro  Churches 

The  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was 
organized  in  1816  at  Baltimore  by  the  withdrawal 
of  a  number  of  negro  members  from  the  Metho- 

i"The   Negro   Church,"  p.   28. 

1  "Gospel  Among  the  Slaves."  p.  318.  Harrison  & 
Barnes. 


138  NEGRO  LIFE  IN   THE  SOUTH 

dist  Episcopal  Church.  Rev.  Richard  Allen  was 
elected  their  first  Bishop  by  this  organizing  con 
ference.  This  church  has  now  about  half  a  mil 
lion  members  and  nearly  three  thousand  organ 
ized  churches. 

Another  branch  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  is  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
organized  in  1811.  It  now  has  nearly  four  hun 
dred  thousand  adherents. 

The  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  is  a  branch 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South  and 
was  organized  in  1870.  It  now  has  a  member 
ship  approximating  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou 
sand. 

The  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  (col 
ored)  was  organized  in  1869,  at  Murfreesboro, 
Tennessee.  It  has  fifteen  thousand  members  and 
property  valued  at  two  hundred  thousand  dol 
lars  ($200,000). 

Regular    Baptist     (colored)     constitute    the 

*ai!S£gLJUSgIg ,lcoml^HSl2!IT< pj_n£g£QCs.  The  first 
ColoredBapitist  Convention '""was  organized  in 
North  Carolina,  1866.  They  now  have  a  million 
and  a  half  members  and  property  valued  at  ten 
millions  of  dollars. 

Summary  of  Negro  Churches 

The  census  of  1890  gives  the  total  number  of 
members  or  communicants  as  2,673,977  and  the 
total  property  valuation  at  $26,626,448.  It  seems 
likely  that  the  1910  census  will  give  a  total  mem 
bership  of  between  four  and  four  and  a  half  mil 
lions.  Mr.  John  Wesley  Gilbert,  of  the  Colored 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  estimates  that  prop- 


THE   RELIGIOUS    LIFE   OF   THE    NEGRO          139 

crty  valuation  now  aggregates  forty  millions  of 
dollars.  Here  is  a  powerful  organization.  What 
is  its  strength  and  what  are  its  weaknesses? 

Inclusive    Character    of    Negro    Church    Its    First 
Source  of  Strength 

The  first  element  of  the  strength  of  the  Negro 
Church  lies  in  its  all-inclusive  character.  It  is 
not  simply  the  place  for  worship,  it  is  also  the  so 
cial  center  of  the  race,  the  place  of  amusement  and 
to  an  extent  the  place  for  gathering  information. 
church  ha 


tinctjvF-ly  npgrfr-A^nf.rtQti  gnfljflj  institution.  Dur 
ing  slave  days  the  home  was  not  a  place  of  much 
social  power.  While  there  were  many  masters 
who  did  what  they  could  to  give  their  slaves 
something  of  home  life,  the  conditions  were  such 
and  the  past  history  of  the  slave  was  such  that 
little  could  be  effected.  It  easily  came  about, 
therefore,  that  the  church  stood  for  whatever  of 
social  ideals  the  negro  had.  After  the  war,  the 
home  life  of  the  negro  improved  very  slowly  and 
even  to  this  day  there  is  really  no  home  life  for 
great  masses  of  negroes.  The  church,  therefore, 
still  holds  its  sway  as  a  powerful  social  factor. 

The  Church  and  Amusement 

Likewise  the  church  is  the  center  of  amuse 
ment.  In  few  cities  do  the  negroes  have  any 
theaters,  amusement  halls,  etc.  Hence  the 
church  has  had  to  step  in  and  become  the  center 
of  amusement.  Here  the  debating  club  holds 
sway;  here  in  later  days  the  moving  picture  is 
seen.  The  fact  that  the  church  is  the  center  of 


I4O  NEGRO  LIFE  IN   THE  SOUTH 

amusements  has  put  a  severe  ban  on  many  forms 
of  pleasure.  There  is  practically  no  outdoor 
amusement  for  the  negro,  save  peeping  over  the 
fence  to  see  a  white  ball  game,  or  in  the  country 
or  small  town  district  having  a  country  "break 
down."  The  fact  that  the  negro  church  has 
been  the  center  both  of  the  social  life  and  of  the 
pleasure  life  of  the  negro  has  given  to  it  a  very 
firm  hold  on  the  negro  race. 

Material  Equipment 

A  second  fact  of  real  importance  is  the  ma 
terial  equipment  of  the  negro  church.  While 
many  of  the  buildings  are  poor  and  uninviting, 
it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  race  has  done 
splendidly  to  erect  buildings  aggregating  in  cost 
$40,000,000.  This  is  no  small  asset  for  the  power 
of  the  church. 

Breadth  of  Influence 

Another  strength  of  the  church  lies  in  the  fact 
that  it  reaches  almost  the  whole  community  in 
stead  of  just  a  fraction  of  the  community  as  is 
the  case  of  the  white  church.  It  is  estimated  that 
forty-eight  per  ceftt.  of  the  negroes  are  church 
>  members  and  many  more  are  adherents  and  regu 
lar  attendants.  However  poor  the  gospel  that 
is  preached,  there  is  power  for  good  in  the  fact 
that  the  vast  majority  of  the  race  has  respect  for 
the  church  and  attend  its  services. 

Educated  Ministers 

Possibly  the  most  important  asset  of  the  negro 
church  lies  in  its  increasing  number  of  educated 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE   OF   THE   NEGRO          14! 

ministers.  On  the  darker  side  of  the  question  we 
must  say  a  word  later,  but  it  is  only  fair  to  say 
here  that  the  standard  is  certainly  rising.  In  the 
cities  where  the  problems  are  more  difficult  there 
is  an  increasing  number  of  pastors  that  are  col 
lege  and  seminary  graduates.  In  such  churches 
the  service  is  orderly,  the  sermons  are  wholesome, 
logical  and  practical.  This  is  perhaps  the  most 
encouraging  sign  of  the  whole  negro  problem 
to-day. 

Uneducated  Ministry  a  Weakness 

With  all  of  these  elements  of  strength  there 
are  also  not  a  few  weaknesses  in  the  negro 
church.  The  first  of  these  is  the  other  side  of 
our  last  sentence — the  low  average  intelligence 
and  morality  of  the  negro  ministry.  Here,  lest 
we  shall  be  unfair  in  our  judgment,  let  a  negro 
minister  speak: 

Dougherty  County,  Georgia 

"We  have  been  able  to  learn  of  about  120 
preachers  in  the  county.  Of  this  number  fully 
seventy-five  are  either  ordained  or  licensed.  The 
most  of  their  names  appear  in  the  minutes  of 
the  various  denominations.  Now  this  number 
may  be  almost  doubled  if  we  search  for  all  those 
who  call  themselves  preachers  and  fill  the  func 
tion  of  interpreters  of  the  Word  of  God.  This 
number  moulds  as  great  a  sentiment  for  or 
against  the  church  as  those  who  hold  license." 

"You  will  get  some  idea  of  the  vast  host  who 
belong  to  this  class  when  I  tell  you  that  the 
records  of  the  last  conference  of  the  Southwe?4; 


142  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Georgia  District  of  the  African  Methodist  Epis 
copal  Church  show  that  there  were  forty-three 
applicants  for  admission  to  the  conference.  Note 
that  this  is  only  one  of  the  four  or  five  confer 
ences  of  this  church  in  the  State.  Be  it  said,  to 
the  lasting  credit  of  the  conference,  that  it  in  un 
mistakable  terms  put  the  stamp  of  condemna 
tion  upon  the  presumption  of  about  thirty-five  of 
them  and  sent  them  back  to  their  homes  dis 
appointed  men.  And  yet,  while  it  sent  them  back 
home  unadmitted,  it  did  not  make  them  less  de 
termined  to  preach,  for  in  their  several  communi 
ties  you  will  find  them  still  exercising  themselves 
in  the  holy  calling."  : 

Character  of  Ministers 

In  an  investigation  made  by  Atlanta  Uni 
versity  concerning  the  character  of  the  negro 
ministry,twojiiiiidped  negro  laymen  were  asked 
their  opinion  of  the  moral  character  of  negro 
preachers.  It  is  remarkable  that  only  thirty- 

A  '*— •«•»••••••— 

I  seven  gave  jgcjded  answers  of  approval.  All 
'  tfie  others  made  "some  qualifications.  Among 
faults  mentioned  by  these  negro  laymen  were 
selfishness,  deceptiveness,  love  for  money,  sex 
ual  impurity,  dogmatism,  laziness,  ignorance,  etc. 
It  cannot  be  doubted  that  these  adjectives  carry 
all  too  large  a  truth.  In  this  connection  also  may 
be  mentioned  again  the  type  of  preaching  done 
by  many  of  these  ministers.  It  is  highly  emo 
tional  and  lacking  in  any  practical  moral  mes- 
sage. 

'Rev.  W.  H.  Holloway.     Study  of  Thomas  County, 
Ga.    'The  Negro  Church,"  p.  61. 


THE   RELIGIOUS   LIFE   OF  THE   NEGRO         143 

Church  Splits 

Another  weakness  of  the  church  lies  in  its 
spirit  of  rivalry  and  dissensions.  None  of  the 
churches  seem  so  far  to  have  devised  a  system  of 
government  that  will  cement  its  members  into 
strong,  compact  organizations.  In  most  cases 
organization  counts  for  little,  personal  prejudice 
counts  for  much.  If  debate  arises  in  the  church 
over  the  ability  of  a  preacher,  one  wing  will  pull 
off  and  establish  a  new  church.  Hence  it  arises 
that  many  of  the  negro  churches  are  family 
churches,  being  the  relatives  and  friends  of  some 
dissenting  pastor  who  organized  the  new  church. 
Rev.  W.  H.  Holloway  declares  that  of  the  ninety- 
eight  churches  in  Thomas  County,  Georgia,  about 
half  of  them  originated  out  of  a  church  split.  "I 
know  of  no  rural  churches  in  Thomas  County 
whose  inception  had  the  careful  nursing  of  an 
educated,  cultured  leader.  The  largest  churches 
and  the  biggest  preachers  in  Thomas  County  do 
little  home  missionary  work  and  organize  no  new 
churches." :  This  means  that  there  are  twice 
as  many  church  organizations  as  there  should  be, 
there  are  too  many  church  buildings,  that  con 
gregations  are  too  small,  and  hence  salaries  paid 
to  ministers  cannot  be  large  enough  to  secure 
competent  men. 

In  going  over  the  list  of  fifty-four  churches 
in  the  City  of  Atlanta,  I  find  seventeen  churches 
with  less  than  one  hundred  members,  the  aver 
age  membership  of  these  seventeen  being  thirty. 
Only  eight  of  the  fifty-four  had  more  than  two 
hundred,  and  only  four  had  more  than  three  hun- 

1  "The  Negro  Church,"  p.  57. 


144  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

dred  members.    Eleven  of  these  Atlanta  churches 
are  the  outgrowth  of  church  splits. 

In  the  City  of  Nashville  there  are  fifty-two 
negro  churches,  the  average  membership  of 
which  is  two  hundred  and  seven,  while  the  aver 
age  in  the  white  churches  is  nearly  twice  as 
great,  three  hundred  and  ninety.  There  are 
seventeen  negro  churches  in  Nashville  with  less 
than  one  hundred  members  each.  This  condition 
at  once  accounts  for  poor  church  buildings  and 
the  low  grade  of  ministers. 

Loose  Business  Methods 

Lack  of  business  methods  is  another  weakness 
of  the  negro  church.  In  this  the  negro  church 
has  no  monopoly,  as,  indeed,  it  has  not  in  any  of 
the  other  weaknesses  mentioned.  All  of  these 
weaknesses  are  simply  more  marked  in  the  negro 
than  in  the  white  church.  Of  one  hundred  and 
sixty-five  negro  laymen  asked  concerning  the 
progress  of  the  negro  church,  thirty-five  an 
swered  decidedly  that  its  financial  management 
was  very  bad.  Again,  let  a  negro  minister  speak 
for  us  on  this  question: 

"Another  condition  which  gives  rise  to  our 
assertion  that  the  church  is  not  exercising  its 
highest  moral  influence,  is  seen  in  its  lax  business 
methods.  Let  us  give  one  example,  which  we 
dare  assert  is  true  of  nine-tenths  of  the  churches 
in  Thomas  County,  and  in  the  South :  A  contract 
is  made  with  every  incoming  minister.  They 
promise  him  a  stipulated  sum  for  his  year's  serv 
ice,  and  when  the  year  ends  he  goes  to  confer 
ence  with  only  about  two-thirds  of  the  pledge 


THE   RELIGIOUS   LIFE  OF  THE   NEGRO         14$ 

fulfilled.  If  he  is  sent  back  to  the  same  field, 
the  second  year  finds  the  church  still  deeper  on 
the  debit  side  of  the  ledger.  If  he  is  sent  to  an 
other  field  the  debt  is  considered  settled,  a  new 
contract  is  made  with  the  new  preacher,  and  the 
same  form  is  gone  through."  3 

Danger  of  Losing  Its  Aim 

Lastly,  we  must  mention  the  fact  that  the  non- 
essentials  of  the  church  are  in  danger  of  absorb 
ing  its  whole  life  to  the  exclusion  of  its  real 
functions  of  religious  teaching.  The  numerous 
church  socials,  the  multitudinous  societies,  the 
prominence  given  to  certain  rites  and  cere 
monies,  fill  the  life  of  the  average  church  mem 
ber  to  a  dangerous  extent.  The  church  is  pri 
marily  a  place  for  worship,  for  religious  in 
struction,  and  for  religious  fellowship  and  serv 
ice.  When  it  loses  its  distinctively  religious 
character  it  is  in  danger  of  losing  its  power. 

The  Appeal  of  Facts 

Here,  then,  is  a  problem  of  no  small  concern 
to  every  Southern  man.  We  live  in  a  section 
of  the  country  where  eight  million  colored  people 
live.  Whatever  affects  the  lives  of  these  people 
affects  our  lives.  The  colored  man  is  a  decidedly 
religious  being,  but  if  his  religion  is  not  worthy 
it  will  degrade  rather  than  elevate  him.  The 
church  which  fosters  his  religion  is  torn  with  in 
ternal  dissensions  which  weaken  its  power  and 
dissipate  its  energies;  its  ministers  are  all  too 
frequently  ignorant,  lazy  and  immoral;  its  gos- 

1  "The  Negro  Church,"  p.  60. 


146  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

pel  is  in  many  cases  an  emotional  hysteria,  with 
little  reference  to  morals;  and  the  majority  of 
white  men  are  either  ignorant  or  indifferent  to 
these  facts.  Shall  we,  as  southern  college  men, 
not  be  statesmen-like  enough  to  see  the  im 
portance  of  this  present  situation,  and  lend  our 
help  in  meeting  the  present  needs?  And  the 
conditions  are  by  no  means  hopeless.  The  negro 
is  teachable,  he  is  deeply  religious,  he  looks  to 
the  white  man  for  counsel,  he  will  welcome  aid 
from  any  college  man — and,  what  is  best  of  all, 
he  is  making-  substantial  progress  in  higher  re 
ligious  ideals. 


VI 
WHAT  CAN  WE  DO? 


RIGHT'S  SECURITY 

What  if  the  wind  do  howl  without, 
And  turn  the  creaking  weather-vane; 
What  if  the  arrows  of  the  rain 
Do  beat  against  the  window-pane? 
Art  thou  not  armored  strong  and  fast 
Against  the  sallies  of  the  blast? 
Art  thou  not  sheltered  safe  and  well 
Against  the  flood's  insistent  swell? 

What  boots  i*,  that  thou  stand'st  alone, 
And  laughest  in  the  battle's  face 
When  all  the  weak  have  fled  the  place 
And  let  their  feet  and  fears  keep  pace? 
Thou  wavest  still  thine  ensign  high, 
And  shouted  thy  loud  battle-cry; 
Higher  than  e'er  the  tempest  roared, 
It  cleaves  the  silence  like  a  sword. 

Right  arms  and  armors,  too,  that  man 

Who  will  not  compromise  with  wrong; 

Though  single,  he  must  front  the  throng, 

And  wage  the  battle  hard  and  long. 

Minorities,  since  time  began, 

Have  shown  the  better  side  of  man; 

And  often  in  the  lists  of  time 

One  man  has  made  a  cause  sublime! 

—PAUL  LAURENCE  DUNBAR. 


VI 
WHAT   CAN   WE  DO? 

Present  Social  Awakening 

Ours  may  be  characterized  as  a  sociological 
age.  Men  are  thinking  to-day  in  terms  of  so 
cial  life.  It  would  be  safe  to  say  that  more  books 
dealing  with  social  questions  have  come  from 
the  press  within  the  last  twenty-five  years  than 
in  all  the  previous  centuries  of  the  world's  history. 
There  is  a  widespread  awakening  to  the  facts 
of  all  humanity  and  a  consequent  interest  in 
them.  One  would  scarcely  dare  to  say  that  this 
is  a  wholly  modern  movement,  for  it  has  its  roots 
deep  in  the  soil  of  the  past,  but  its  flower  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  burst  into  bloom  until  this 
present  generation. 

World  Unity 

At  least  three  elements — each  of  which  have 
had  much  accentuation  during  the  last  decade — 
have  entered  into  this  growing  social  conscious 
ness.  First  of  these  may  be  mentioned  the  prin 
ciple  of  a  spiritual  monism.  Slowly,  but  surely, 
philosophy  has  been  moving  away  from  the  vari 
ous  forms  of  dualism,  until  it  now  proclaims  a 
unifying  element  in  the  universe,  into  which  all 
forces  and  all  beings  are  caught  up  and  knit  into 
one  complete  whole.  Behind  the  forces  of 
149 


I5O  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

nature  there  is  a  supreme  force;  behind  the 
lives  of  the  universe,  there  is  a  supreme  life; 
and  these  blend  into  a  complete  and  perfect  per 
sonality,  whom  Christians  call  God.  Such  seems 
to  be  the  decided  tendency  of  science  and 
philosophy. 

Sacredness  of  the  Individual 

The  second  element  is  but  a  corollary  of  the 
first — the  growing  sacredness  of  the  individual. 
If  all  life  is  unified  in  one  supreme  life,  each  in 
dividual  is  enhanced  in  value  because  it  is  a  part 
of  the  all  inclusive  and  the  universal.  It  par 
takes  of  the  divine  nature,  and  is  to  be  judged 
not  by  what  it  possesses,  but  by  what  it  is  and 
by  that  to  which  it  is  related.  This  thought  is  as 
old  as  the  book  of  Job,  for  there  the  writer  says : 
If  I  have  despised  the  cause  of  my  man-servant 
or  of  my  maid-servant,  when  they  contended 
with  me;  what  then  shall  I  do  when  God  riseth 
up?  And  when  he  visiteth,  what  shall  I  answer 
him?  Did  not  he  that  made  me  in  the  womb 
make  him?  And  did  not  one  fashion  us  in  the 
womb?  Job  31:13-15.  This  was  the  supreme 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ — out  of  which  grew 
His  universal  sympathy — but,  strange  to  say, 
the  Christian  Church  is  just  coming  to  realize 
the  tremendous  meaning  of  this  conception. 

Social  Responsibility 

Growing  out  of  these  two  is  the  third  element 
of  modern  social  ideals,  namely,  the  sense  of  re 
sponsibility  which  one  man  feels  for  the  well- 
being  of  all  other  men.  If  there  is  one  supreme 


WHAT    CAN    WE   DO?  151 

person — a  Father  God ;  if  each  individual  is 
caught  up  into  that  Godhood  and  so  becomes 
sacred ;  then,  each  man  is  brother  to  his  neigh 
bor,  just  because  they  are  both  alike  sons  of  God 
— and  every  true  brother  must  be  interested  in, 
and,  so  far  as  his  power  extends,  responsible 
for,  the  welfare  of  every  other  brother  in  this 
universal  household.  Such,  it  seems  to  me,  is 
the  real  meaning  of  this  new  social  awakening. 

Loyalty  to  Social  Ideals 

If,  then,  this  is  the  highest  development  of 
human  thought — if  our  philosophy,  our  science, 
and  our  religion  have  led  us  to  this — that  each 
individual  is  sacred  and  we  have  an  obligation  to 
him  because  of  what  he  is — then,  we,  who  de 
sire  to  be  loyal  to  the  highest,  must  let  this 
highest  find  expression  in  our  attitude,  in  our 
words,  and  in  our  deeds;  for,  as  Dr.  Royce  has 
said,  "Loyalty,  as  you  see,  is  essentially  an  active 
virtue.  It  involves  manifold  sentiments — love 
good-will,  earnestness,  delight  in  the  cause,  but 
it  is  complete  only  in  the  motor  terms,  never  in 
merely  sentimental  terms.  It  is  useless  to  call 
my  feelings  loyal  unless  my  muscles  somehow 
express  my  loyalty."1  The  enunciation  of  a 
social  principle  has  far-reaching  meaning  for 
our  present  discussion,  for  if  a  man  is  sacred 
just  because  he  is  a  human  individual,  we  will 
need  to  realize  anew  that  the  negro  has  a  claim 
on  our  sympathy  and  help.  President  King,  in 
his  latest  volume,  has  well  put  it:  "We  can 

1  "Race  Questions  and  Other  American  Problems," 
P-  239- 


152  NEGRO  LIFE  IN   THE  SOUTH 

hardly  claim,  indeed,  to  have  risen  to  the  level  of 
even  the  common  consciousness  of  our  time,  if 
we  are  not  ready  to  recognize  the  ideals  of 
others,  though  expressed  in  quite  unconventional 
forms.  The  willingness  to  see  and  to  cherish 
ideals,  and  the  heroism  persistently  to  live  or 
unhesitatingly  to  die  for  them,  let  us  be  sure,  is 
not  confined  to  our  clique  or  to  our  race.  Have 
we  really  open  eyes  for  the  hidden  ideals  in  the 
lives  that  seem  to  us  unlike  our  own — laborer, 
capitalist,  negro,  white,  educated,  uneducated, 
quick  or  slow  ?  It  is  not  a  true  interpretation  of 
Christian  law  of  love  which  insists  upon  either 
racial  or  class  barriers  to  the  setting  aside  of 
the  far  more  fundamental  likeness  of  men.  We 
owe  reverence  and  faith  and  love  not  merely  to 
those  whom  we  call  our  own,  but  to  all — in  the 
significant  words  of  Jesus,  'despairing  of  no 
man'  (Luke,  6:35,  margin).  And  we  shall  have 
no  final  peace,  either  as  individuals  or  as  a 
nation,  until  we  recognize  in  its  entirety  this 
primal  law  of  Jesus."1 

The  Real  Question 

Now,  the  real  point  of  the  race  question  is 
not  shall  we  have  social  intermingling — but  shall 
we  recognize  that  the  other  man  has  a  soul,  is  a 
real  human  personality — in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
he  often  lives  on  a  back  alley,  wears  poor  clothes, 
uses  a  broken  language,  and  has  a  black  skin. 
I  have  sometimes  felt  that  we  really  do  not  be 
lieve  the  negro  is  possessed  of  human  person 
ality. 

1  "Ethics  of  Jesus,"  p.  246. 


WHAT   CAN    WE  DO?  153 

This  fact  came  to  me  with  intensity  some 
years  ago  as  I  was  riding  on  a  Pullman  car 
through  Alabama.  We  stopped  rather  long  at 
some  small  station,  and  I  noted,  without  asking 
the  cause,  that  a  very  large  crowd  of  colored 
people  were  gathered  on  the  station  platform. 
After  the  train  had  started  again,  a  traveling 
man,  who  had  gone  out  to  see  what  was  wrong, 
returned  to  the  car,  and  was  asked  by  his  com 
panion  the  cause  of  the  delay.  "Oh,  nothing," 
replied  the  drummer,  "one  'nigger'  shot  an 
other,  and  they  were  loading  the  wounded  one 
on  to  carry  him  to  the  nearest  town  with  a  hos 
pital."  Then  and  there  it  dawned  upon  me 
that  we  really  did  not  appreciate  the  sacredness 
of  humanity,  provided  that  humanity  be  clothed 
in  a  dark  skin. 

Professor  DuBois  describes  in  beautiful  and 
heart-searching  English  the  death  of  his  own 
baby  boy.  He  tells  how  dark  the  day  seemed  to 
him  as  the  carriages  rolled  along  through  the 
crowded  streets  of  Atlanta  behind  the  hearse, 
which  carried  the  lifeless  form  of  the  child,  as 
dear  to  him  as  life.  As  the  crowd  parted  for  a 
moment  to  let  the  procession  pass,  some  one  in 
quired  who  it  was  that  had  died.  Professor 
DuBois  heard  the  reply  as  it  broke  in  upon  his 
saddened  heart — ''Just  'niggers.'  "  Do  you  won 
der  that  he  is  sometimes  bitter? 

One  would  be  disposed  to  charge  him  with  over 
emphasizing  the  indifference  of  white  men  if  we 
had  not  lived  all  our  lives  in  the  midst  of  these 
conditions  and  had  not  heard  such  expressions 
hundreds  of  times.  These,  of  course,  are  the 


154  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

expressions  of  the  coarser  element  of  white  men, 
and  yet  they  indicate  a  tendency  to  forget  that 
a  subject  race  is  not  a  dehumanized  race.  It 
should  be  said  also  that  this  attitude  toward  a 
weaker  race  is  not  seen  alone  in  the  South.  1 
have  seen  things  in  Northern  cities,  and  heard 
words  to  and  about  foreigners  which  made  my 
blood  boil.  When  I  was  making  a  tour  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  colleges,  I  saw  treatment  of  Jap 
anese  which  I  could  scarcely  keep  from  resent 
ing  with  physical  violence — but  I  reflected  that 
this  was  only  parallel  to  the  attitude  of  the 
coarser  element  of  my  own  section  toward  a 
backward  race. 

Attitude  Toward  Dependent  Races 

Mr.  Milligan,  in  his  charming  book,  "The 
Jungle  Folk  of  Africa,"  tells  us  the  story  of  the 
treatment  of  the  Kruboys,  who  load  and  unload 
the  ships  on  the  West  Coast.  This  work  is  ex 
ceedingly  dangerous,  on  account  of  poor  harbors 
and  heavy  surf,  and  none  with  less  endurance, 
skill  and  bravery  than  these  Africans  would  dare 
undertake  the  task. 

One  day  the  sea  was  so  very  dangerous,  "the 
boys  presented  themselves  in  a  body  before  one 
of  the  officers  and  said :  'Mastah,  them  sea  be 
bad  too  much.  We  no  be  fit  for  land  cargo. 
S'pose  we  try,  we  go  loss  all  cargo,  and  plenty 
man's  life.  So  please  excuse  to-day,  Mastah, 
for  we  think  to-morrow  go  be  fine.' 

"The  answer  they  received  was  a  volley  of 
profanity  and  curses.  'Just  because  one  of  them 
was  killed  they  all  turn  cowards,'  said  one.  'AI- 


WHAT   CAN    WE  DO?  155 

ways  thinking  of  themselves,'  said  another.  With 
many  such  shrewd  observations  and  sundry 
moral  exhortations  to  bravery,  the  boats  were 
lowered  and  they  were  ordered  into  them." 

"One  day  our  boys  went  ashore  early  in  the 
morning,  leaving  the  ship  at  half-past  five.  They 
were  expecting  to  make  the  trip  before  break 
fast,  as  usual,  and  therefore  had  nothing  to 
eat  before  starting.  They  had  landed  the  cargo 
safely  at  the  trading-house;  but  the  sea  was  so 
bad  that  they  could  not  get  off  to  the  ship  all 
that  day.  They  made  several  unsuccessful  at 
tempts,  and  it  was  almost  night  before  they  suc 
ceeded.  Meanwhile,  the  swell  was  so  heavy  that 
we  had  steamed  far  out  for  safety,  and  were 
anchored  seven  miles  from  the  shore.  The  boys 
reached  the  ship  after  dark,  and  we  then  learned 
that  the  white  trader  ashore  had  given  them 
nothing  to  eat,  although  the  ship  would  have 
repaid  him.  Those  boys  had  battled  with  the 
sea  and  with  hunger,  not  having  had  a  taste  of 
food  all  that  day." 

"Only  a  short  time  afterwards,  one  evening 
at  the  table,  an  officer  who  had  been  ashore  told 
us  a  story  that  was  intended  to  prove  the  cruelty 
of  the  native.  A  white  trader,  he  said,  had 
caught  a  young  elephant.  He  went  away  on  a 
journey  to  the  bush,  leaving  the  care  of  it  to  his 
native  workmen.  Upon  his  return,  after  several 
months,  he  found  the  elephant  in  very  poor 
health,  and  a  few  weeks  later  it  died.  There 
was  no  doubt  that  the  natives  had  neglected  to 
feed  it  in  his  absence,  and  this  was  the  cause  of 
its  death.  Horrible  cruelty  of  the  beastly  native ! 


156  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Pungent  remarks,  appropriate  to  the  occasion, 
were  contributed  all  around  the  table.  For  my 
self,  I  was  thinking  of  those  starved  and  tired 
boys  battling  with  a  raging  sea.  But  I  said  not 
a  word.  What  would  be  the  use?" 

So  ever  it  is  that  a  weak  and  dependent  race  is 
badly  used  by  those  that  are  greedy  and  unscru 
pulous.  One  cannot  refrain  from  calling  atten 
tion  to  Christ's  parable  in  Matt.  25  134-46 :  "Inas 
much  as  ye  did  it  not  unto  one  of  these  least,  ye 
did  it  not  unto  me."  The  application  of  these 
words  to  the  problem  in  hand  cannot  by  any  pos 
sibility  be  escaped,  by  the  man  of  open  mind. 

Test  of  White  Civilization 

We  have  heard  much  discussion  of  whether 
the  negro  would  be  able  to  stand  the  test  of  con 
tact  with  a  more  advanced  civilization.  In  my 
opinion  this  is  not  at  all  the  real  question.  The 
question  at  issue  is,  will  the  white  man,  with  his 
superior  training,  greater  advancement,  and 
larger  opportunities,  be  able  to  stand  the  test  of 
contact  with  a  less  fortunate  race?  Every  race, 
as  well  as  every  individual,  must  be  finally 
judged  by  its  attitude  toward,  and  its  treatment 
of,  those  who  are  not  able  to  protect  themselves. 
The  father  that  despises  one  of  his  children  be 
cause  it  is  weaker  physically  or  mentally,  is 
branded  as  a  savage.  The  boy  that  "picks  on" 
another  under  his  size  is  promptly  denominated 
a  bully  and  a  coward.  Not  less  will  the  race 
that  deals  unfairly  with  5  weaker  and  more  in 
fantile  race  be  judged  of  God  to  be  unworthy 
of  its  heritage.  "The  responsibility  of  a  privi- 


WHAT   CAN   WE  DO?  157 

leged  people"  is  the  key  thought  of  one  of  the 
world's  greatest  prophetic  utterances.  "You 
only  have  I  known  of  all  the  families  of  the 
earth,"  said  Amos  to  the  highly  favored  Israel 
ites,  "Therefore  I  will  visit  upon  you  all  your 
iniquities," 

A  National  Question 

The  supreme  race  questions  of  this  nation  are 
not  whether  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  will  be  able  to  meet  the  demands 
of  a  more  exacting  civilization;  not  whether  the 
European  immigrant  of  the  East  is  the  equal  of 
the  native  American;  not  whether  the  negro  of 
the  South  can  ever  measure  up  to  the  standard 
of  achievement  of  his  white  neighbor  —  but 
whether  in  all  these  varying  situations  we  Amer 
icans,  with  our  boasted  culture,  larger  wealth, 
and  splendid  opportunities,  will  be  able  so  to 
deal  with  these  weaker  peoples  as  to  prove  to 
God  and  to  the  world  that  we  are  a  race  of  su- 
peror  advancement.  Our  culture  and  our  civil 
ization  are  not  given  us  for  selfish  use.  We  are 
simply  the  custodians  of  these  rich  blessings. 
Just  as  the  new  social  consciousness  demands 
that  a  man  of  accumulated  millions  shall  use  it 
for  the  good  of  humanity — so  the  social  sense  of 
the  world  at  large  will  sooner  or  later  demand 
that  we  shall  use  our  culture  and  our  civilization 
to  elevate  those  less  fortunate  than  ourselves. 

Fair  Mindcdness  Toward  the  Negro 

Thus,  we  have  revealed  the  first  great  service 
that  we  can  render  to  the  negro  race.  We  must 


158  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

change  public  opinion.  We  must  see  to  it  that 
he  is  no  longer  thought  of  simply  as  a  brute,  but 
as  a  human  being.  Here  there  needs  to  be  dis 
crimination — and  the  crowd  rarely  ever  discrim 
inates.  Because  one  negro,  or  a  dozen,  or  two 
score,  or  several  thousand  may  be  brutish  and 
commit  brutal  crimes,  it  is  neither  fair-minded 
nor  just  to  accuse  the  whole  race  as  being  with 
out  souls.  There  are  many  brutal  white  men. 
Many  of  them  are  as  low  in  sin  and  shame  as 
human  thought  can  imagine,  and  yet  we  assert 
the  essential  dignity  and  sacredness  of  the  in 
dividual.  If  we  are  to  be  fair  to  the  negro,  we 
must  recognize  that  there  are  various  stratas 
within  that  race,  and  that  many  of  them  are 
working  hard  to  acquire  culture  and  character. 
We  shall  give  the  race  a  great  impetus  when  we 
help  the  world  to  recognize  that  they  must  have 
a  fair  chance — that  they  must  be  treated  as 
human  personalities. 

Obligation  to  Know  the  Negro 

Another  aim  we  need  to  set  for  ourselves  is 
a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  negro's  con 
dition.  Our  attention  was  called,  in  the  first 
chapter,  to  the  ignorance  of  our  white  people 
concerning  negro  life.  It  should  be  the  de 
liberate  purpose  of  every  college  man  to  know 
more  about  this  problem.  This  book  claims  to 
do  nothing  but  point  the  way.  Each  man  must 
investigate  for  himself.  We  must  go  to  their 
homes  just  to  see  how  they  live,  we  must  visit 
their  schools  to  find  how  they  think,  we  must 
visit  their  churches  to  know  how  they  worship. 


WHAT  CAN   WE  DO?  159 

To  the  man  who  is  in  earnest  about  life  there 
can  be  no  more  fascinating  study  than  to  find 
just  how  this  "other  half  lives."  It  must  always 
be  remembered  that  this  can  be  done  well  only 
in  the  sympathetic  spirit. 

Visit  Schools  and  Churches 

But  we  can  do  much  more  than  investigate 
conditions.  There  is  the  very  greatest  need  for 
men  that  have  higher  ideals  to  lend  their  help 
and  encouragement  in  the  matter  of  education 
and  religion.  It  would  mean  much  to  the  negro 
youth  if  more  white  men  visited  their  schools 
and  made  addresses  that  would  fire  the  ambi 
tion  of  these  backward  children.  Character  is 
made  by  setting  ideals — and  who  can  better  do 
this  than  the  educated  white  men  of  the  South? 
In  like  manner,  we  would  do  well  to  speak  in 
their  churches,  giving  them  addresses  on  the 
practical  ethical  problems.  I  cannot  imagine  a 
greater  service  that  we  could  render.  In  par 
ticular,  addresses  could  be  given  to  the  men 
and  boys  on  questions  of  social  purity  which 
might  be  of  very  great  benefit.  I  gave  such  an 
address  recently  to  a  group  of  negro  men,  and 
many  of  them  said  afterwards  it  was  the  only 
address  of  the  kind  they  had  ever  heard.  If  we 
are  looking  for  some  practical  service,  here  is 
the  chance. 

Negro  Sunday  Schools 

In  this  connection,  one  is  reminded  of  the 
large  opportunity  for  service  through  the  negro 
Sunday  school.  There  is  hardly  a  negro  church 


l6o  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

that  would  not  welcome  the  services  of  a  col-' 
lege  man  to  teach  its  Bible  class  for  older  people, 
or  to  teach  a  group  of  younger  men,  or  a  class 
of  boys.  In  the  city  of  Nashville,  the  Methodist 
Training  School  is  sending  out  Bible  teachers  to 
a  number  of  churches.  I  have  visited  some  of 
these  churches,  and  it  was  with  evident  pride  and 
appreciation  that  they  told  me  of  this  help. 

In  other  places  there  is  need  for  the  organiza 
tion  of  Sunday  schools  in  those  sections  of  the 
city  or  country  where  there  are  no  churches. 
Hampden-Sidney  students  have  been  doing  this 
for  a  number  of  years.  They  organize  small 
schools  anywhere  within  a  radius  of  three  or 
four  miles  of  the  college,  and  students  go  out 
to  teach. 

Presbyterian  Colored  Mission 

One  of  the  most  notable  undertakings  of  the 
kind  is  that  of  the  Presbyterian  Theological  Sem 
inary  in  Louisville,  Kentucky.  Rev.  John  Little, 
who  was  one  of  the  student  founders  of  this 
particular  Sunday  school,  and  is  now  in  charge 
as  superintendent,  gives  the  following  account 
of  its  inception :  "At  a  business  meeting  of  the 
Students'  Missionary  Society  of  the  Presbyterian 
Theological  Seminary  in  Louisville,  November, 
1897,  the  needs  of  the  colored  people  were  men 
tioned,  and  the  suggestion  made  that  a  Sunday 
school  be  organized  for  their  instruction.  Six 
students  volunteered  to  teach  in  such  a  Sunday 
school,  and  plans  were  formulated  to  begin  the 
work.  We  thought  it  would  be  an  easy  matter 
to  secure  a  house,  but  we  found  landlords  very 


WHAT   CAN   WE  DO?  l6l 

cautious  about  renting  buildings  for  this  purpose. 
Twenty-five  vacant  houses  were  inspected  before 
one  could  be  rented." 

"The  house  was  formerly  a  lottery  office,  and 
was  well  known  to  the  people  of  the  neighbor 
hood.  This  site  was  selected  because  it  was  in 
the  midst  of  a  densely  settled  negro  district. 
These  negroes  were  very  poor,  and  day  and 
night  were  exposed  to  vice.  Saloons  were  on 
every  corner;  gambling  places  were  numerous." 

"A  definite  site  on  Preston  Street — a  main 
thoroughfare — having  been  selected,  the  six 
teachers  divided  themselves  into  three  groups, 
going  two  and  two.  Each  group  took  a  street 
and  visited  every  house,  and  in  the  tenement 
houses  every  room.  They  gave  a  personal  in 
vitation  to  each  member  of  the  family  to  attend 
the  services  and  left  a  printed  card  giving  the 
name  of  the  mission,  the  location,  and  the  hours 
for  services.  This  plan  was  persistently  fol 
lowed  until  the  building  was  crowded." 

"In  the  homes  we  were  well  received,  and  in 
vited  to  come  again.  In  the  majority  of  cases 
the  family  promised  to  attend  the  next  Sunday, 
'If  I  live,  and  nothing  happens/  In  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  'something  happened'  to  the  parents, 
for  very  few  of  the  older  people  came  to  the 
mission  in  the  early  days.  In  later  days  they 
came  in  larger  numbers." 

The  School  Opened 

"The  doors  were  opened  in  February,  1898  and 
23  negro  pupils  were  enrolled.  Within  a  month 
the  attendance  had  grown  to  40.  Our  room  was 


l62  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

full,  and  special  efforts  to  secure  a  larger  attend 
ance  ceased,  and  we  tried  to  develop  the  char 
acter  of  those  enrolled." 

"The  first  session  of  this  Sunday  school  re 
vealed  the  great  need  of  the  people  dwelling  in 
this  section  of  the  city.  Here  we  found  hun 
dreds  of  children,  within  the  sound  of  the 
bells  of  white  and  colored  churches,  who  never 
attended.  The  pupils  were  arranged  as  in  an 
ordinary  school.  The  singing  was  good,  and 
this  natural  gift  has  been  developed  until  the 
music  is  excellent.  .  .  ."* 

This  work  has  grown  until,  in  1909,  there 
were  450  regular  Sunday  school  students;  there 
were  sewing  classes  for  girls,  woodwork  classes 
for  boys,  classes  in  basketry,  cooking,  etc.  What 
is  fully  as  important,  playgrounds  have  been  ar 
ranged  where  colored  boys  can  go  for  an  after 
noon  of  clean  sport.  Such  a  work  as  this  can  be 
reproduced  in  any  city  in  the  South,  if  only 
men  can  be  found  with  large  enough  faith  and 
sufficient  spirit  of  self-sacrifice. 

Famous  Examples 

For  this  kind  of  work  we  have  the  very  best 
of  precedent  in  the  work  of  such  men  as  Stone 
wall  Jackson  and  Robert  E.  Lee.  On  one  of  my 
visits  to  Washington  and  Lee  University,  I 
walked  out  into  the  country  and  chanced  upon 
an  old  man,  who  had  been  one  of  the  negro 
boys  in  the  Sunday  school  conducted  by  Jackson 
before  the  war,  Jackson  then  being  a  professor 

*For  further  facts,  address  Rev.  John  Little,  540 
Roselane,  Louisville,  Ky. 


WHAT   CAN    WE   DO?  163 

at  Virginia  Military  Institute.  The  old  man 
was  very  proud  of  the  fact  that  he  sat  under  the 
famous  General,  and  quoted  a  number  of  Scrip 
ture  passages  to  prove  that  he  had  profited  by 
such  instruction.  With  such  an  illustrious  ex 
ample,  we  can  well  afford  to  have  our  share  in 
such  a  worthy  work. 

Helping   Colored  Young  Men's   Christian   Associa 
tions 

Again,  our  colleges  located  in  cities  where 
there  are  also  negro  schools,  can  be  of  large 
service  by  helping  to  foster  the  Colored  Branch 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
among  these  colored  students.  The  president 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in 
the  white  college  can  meet  the  committees  of  the 
colored  Association,  and  give  ideas  that  will  be 
invaluable.  This  particular  suggestion  comes 
to  me  from  a  negro,  the  president  of  a  negro  col 
lege,  and  from  a  Christian  worker  among  his 
students.  In  like  manner,  men  can  help  in 
carrying  on  the  Bible  study  work  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association.  I  made  a  visit  a 
year  or  two  ago  to  Carlisle  Indian  School,  Car 
lisle,  Pa.,  and  while  there,  we  enrolled  four  hun 
dred  Indian  students  in  Bible  study.  There  were 
no  students  in  the  school  sufficiently  prepared  to 
lead  these  classes.  We,  therefore,  secured  lead 
ers  from  Dickinson  College  and  Dickinson  Sem 
inary  to  go  over  once  each  week  and  do  this 
work.  Why  should  not  the  students  of  the 
South,  who  believe  that  the  negro  student  should 


164  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

know  the  Bible,  go  out  to  these  schools  to  con 
duct  Association  classes? 

Athletic  Help,  etc. 

Another  place  where  the  white  students  may 
serve  the  colored  is  in  athletics.  As  a  rule,  the 
negro  school  is  not  able  to  employ  coaches  or  to 
secure  desirable  officials  for  games.  And  there 
is  no  greater  need  in  the  negro  school  than  a 
genuine  athletic  life.  Those  of  us  that  have  de 
fended  athletics  in  our  own  schools  on  the  basis 
of  their  moral  influence,  and  of  their  physical  up 
lift,  must  readily  understand  that  the  colored 
student  needs  this  even  more.  At  Vanderbilt 
University,  athletic  men  have  gone  out  to  Fisk, 
Roger  Williams,  and  Meharry  for  years  to  act 
as  officials  in  such  games,  and  wherever  I  have 
chanced  upon  one  of  the  students  of  these  in 
stitutions,  they  have  always  had  a  most  kindly 
feeling  toward  all  Vanderbilt  men.  There  is  no 
surer  way  to  settle  the  race  question  than  in 
these  small  matters  to  indicate  our  interest  in 
these  men,  and  our  willingness  to  help  them. 

Boy's  Clubs 

In  like  manner,  university  students  can  be  of 
the  greatest  service  to  the  boys  of  the  negro  race 
if  they  will  organize  them  into  clubs  and  give 
them  a  chance  to  have  some  clean  and  wholesome 
fun.  One  of  the  most  serious  difficulties  in  con 
nection  with  the  negro  problem  is  the  fact  that 
there  are  no  playgrounds,  no  places  of  amuse 
ment  for  these  boys.  A  colored  boy  cannot  play 
ball,  he  cannot  play  tennis,  he  cannot  go  to  a 


WHAT   CAN    WE   DO?  165 

gymnasium,  he  cannot  go  swimming  in  the  city 
—because  there  is  no  place  open  to  him.  A  few 
years  ago  some  colored  men  rented  a  small  park 
in  Atlanta  for  the  sake  of  having  ball  games  for 
colored  boys.  But  some  white  man  in  the  vicin 
ity  complained,  and  the  park  was  closed  by  the 
city  officials.  A  colored  man  in  Atlanta  told  me 
that  there  was  not  a  single  decent  place  of 
amusement,  so  far  as  he  knew,  where  negroes 
could  go.  No  wonder  we  are  turning  out  crops 
of  criminals.  A  negro  boy  is  just  like  a  white 
boy — he  has  the  play  instinct.  If  this  instinct  is 
not  legitimately  gratified,  he  is  either  stunted  by 
too  constant  work  and  no  play,  or  else  he  is  de 
moralized  by  no  work,  no  play,  and  all  loafing. 
I  believe  some  of  these  conditions  can  be  righted 
by  our  college  men  and  our  churches.  If  we  will 
organize  negro  boys'  clubs,  where  these  boys  can 
be  brought  together  for  military  training,  or  for 
simple  games,  or  for  any  type  of  amusement  that 
is  wholesome,  together  with  such  other  more 
serious  and  helpful  activities  as  may  seem  wise, 
we  may  bring  great  blessing  to  the  whole  race. 

Reform  Schools  Needed 

In  this  connection,  it  should  be  said  that  re 
form  schools  have  been  established  for  delinquent 
white  boys  in  most  States;  but  the  colored  boy 
who  commits  a  petty  crime  is  thrust  right  in 
with  the  most  hardened  criminals,  and  is  soon 
turned  out  with  criminal  instincts.  From  the 
standpoint  of  economy  alone,  this  is  poor  policy, 
for  the  boy  that  becomes  a  criminal  is  a  constant 


l66  ffEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

burden  on  the  State,  when  he  might  have  been 
saved  to  the  State  for  a  real  factor  in  production. 

Racial  Integrity 

One  cannot  refrain  from  saying  a  word  here 
about  that  other  crying  evil  which  is  the  plague 
of  white  and  black  alike.  Much  has  been  said 
about  the  horrors  of  an  unnamable  crime  per 
petrated  by  negro  men.  The  negro  race,  as  a 
whole,  condemns  this,  and  all  the  better  classes 
are  helping  in  the  detection  and  prosecution  of 
the  criminals.  But  I  have  had  more  than  one 
honest  and  worthy  negro  man  tell  me  that  we 
would  never  put  a  stop  to  this  crime  until  white 
men  ceased  their  ravages  of  colored  girls.  Of 
course,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  many  colored 
girls  court  the  favor  of  white  men,  but  the  white 
man  is  the  stronger,  and  should  be  held  most  re 
sponsible.  But  this  is  only  one  side  of  the  ques 
tion.  There  is  another  and  a  blacker  side.  A 
college  president  recently  told  me  of  a  case 
which  was  enough  to  make  one's  blood  boil.  A 
negro  drayman,  after  giving  his  daughter  all  the 
training  possible  at  home,  sent  her  away  to  the 
Prairie  View  Normal,  in  Texas,  where  she  grad 
uated,  having  in  mind  teaching  as  a  life  work. 
Meanwhile,  an  unscrupulous,  but  wealthy,  white 
man  became  attracted  by  her  looks  and  followed 
her  back  to  her  small  Mississippi  town  in  the 
attempt  to  persuade  her  to  return  with  him  as 
his  personal  slave.  The  father  of  this  girl  went 
to  my  friend,  the  white  college  president,  and 
asked  him  what  to  do.  Said  he:  "This  white 
man  is  hanging  about  trying  to  rob  my  daughter 


WHAT   CAN    WE   DO?  167 

of  her  purity.  If  I  kill  him,  I  will  be  mobbed 
in  an  hour,  and  if  I  let  him  alone,  I  may  lose  the 
hope  and  pride  of  a  lifetime."  No  wonder  the 
colored  man  rebels  at  such  an  unjust  situation. 

Negro  Testimony 

At  a  meeting  held  in  Atlanta,  to  which  I  have 
referred  in  the  introduction  of  this  book,  the 
hardest  charge  brought  against  the  white  man 
by  the  negro  delegates  present  was  the  fact  that 
many  negro  girls  who  would  withstand  the  ap 
peals  of  negro  men  were  helpless,  and  lost  their 
virtue  to  white  men  who  employed  them  or  who 
might  have  enough  money  to  turn  their  simple 
heads. 

The  Blackest  Crime 

There  has  been  no  small  talk  about  social 
equality.  I  do  not  believe  in  social  inter 
mingling,  nor  do  the  best  class  of  negroes.  But 
where  a  white  man  uses  his  larger  power  and 
influence  to  force  a  negro  girl  to  give  up  her 
purity,  there  is  no  question  of  social  equality 
involved ;  the  man  is  so  infinitely  below  the  level 
of  the  girl  that  he  does  not  deserve  to  be  men 
tioned  in  the  same  breath.  It  is  a  crime  as  black 
as  night  when  a  man  robs  a  white  girl  of  her 
purity,  even  though  she  consents — but  she  is  his 
equal  in  moral  strength  and  has  powers  of  self- 
protection.  The  negro  girl,  however,  has  no  such 
equal  chance  in  the  struggle ;  so,  when  a  white 
man  takes  advantage  of  one  who  is  socially  down, 
who  cannot  protect  herself,  he  is  a  fiend  of  the 
blackest  die.  There  is  need  that  college  men  should 


l68  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

create  a  sentiment  of  condemnation  against  such 
diabolical  sin.  If  we  expect  the  black  man  to 
respect  our  women — and  he  must — then  we  must 
force  our  white  men  to  keep  hands  off  the  negro 
girl — whether  she  be  pure  or  impure.  Thert 
must  not  be  any  mingling  of  the  races. 

Lynching 

Just  here  one  must  say  a  word  about  the 
question  of  lynching.  It  is  a  fact  that  it  grows 
more  prevalent  in  both  North  and  South.  The 
question  is,  can  it  be  defended?  and  if  not,  can 
it  be  stopped?  In  the  first  place,  what  is  the 
effect  on  the  colored  community  of  lynching? 
Does  it  act  as  a  deterrent  of  further  crime? 
Not  at  all.  I  have  talked  with  a  great  many 
negro  men,  and,  so  far  as  a  white  man  can,  have 
got  into  the  spirit  and  mode  of  their  thought  on 
this  subject.  Lynching  only  maddens  and  en 
rages  the  lower  class.  They  look  upon  the 
lynched  negro  as  a  martyr,  who  has  laid  down 
his  life  on  the  altar  of  a  just  hatred  of  his  op 
pressor.  I  am  absolutely  convinced  that  lynch 
ing  does  not  frighten  the  criminal  class,  and 
hence  does  not  prevent  the  awful  crime  against 
our  women.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  increased 
this  crime,  and  has  put  the  criminal  in  the  class 
of  martyrs.  If  we  love  our  women  and  want  to 
protect  them,  some  less  spectacular  method  of 
punishment  must  be  devised. 

It  Degrades  the  White  Man 

What  effect  does  lynching  have  on  the  whole 
community?  Bad,  and  only  bad.  There  is 


WHAT   CAN    WE  DO?  169 

no  light  to  relieve  the  shadow  here.  When 
ever  men,  in  the  name  of  law  and  justice,  so  far 
forget  themselves  as  to  trample  every  law  under 
their  feet,  and,  in  their  mad  frenzy,  even  take 
the  lives  of  honest  officials  who  heroically  stand 
out  for  their  duty  and  for  the  law ;  when,  in  their 
mad  brutality,  they  burn  or  hang  or  riddle  with 
bullets  a  wretched  criminal  supposed  to  be  guilty 
of  this  crime  —  though  it  occasionally  happens 
that  he  is  not — just  so  often  is  the  self-respect 
of  the  community  lowered,  and  the  sacredness 
of  law  is  broken  down.  The  effect  is  brutaliz 
ing  and  demoralizing.  The  result  of  this  disre 
gard  for  law  is  seen  on  every  hand.  It  comes 
out  in  the  night  riding  in  Kentucky,  in  the  Reel 
Foot  Lake  tragedies  in  Tennessee,  and  in  numer 
ous  other  ways.  As  we  sow,  so  shall  we  reap. 
If  we  sow  mobs,  and  violence,  and  disrespect  for 
courts  of  justice,  we  shall  surely  reap  murders, 
lawlessness  and  debased  public  opinion.  This  is 
a  very  high  price  to  pay  for  the  luxury  of  a  little 
bloodthirtsy  revenge. 

Does  not  Prevent  Publicity 

But  some  one  says  that  we  cannot  afford  to 
humiliate  cair  women  by  bringing  them  into 
public  for  the  trial  of  the  criminal.  No,  surely 
not,  but  the  trial  can  be  conducted  with  closed 
doors.  Would  this  be  more  humiliating  than 
what  now  takes  place?  Does  not  the  infuriated 
mob  take  the  criminal  before  the  victim  if  she  is 
alive  and  ask  her  to  identify  him?  There  is  no 
privacy,  no  decorum,  not  even  lack  of  publicity. 
Nothing  could  be  more  public,  nothing  could  be 


170  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

more    revolting   to    real   womanhood   than    our 
present  methods. 

Defeats  Justice 

And,  last  of  all,  justice  cannot  be  done  by  a 
frenzied  mob.  In  a  Republic  such  as  ours,  every 
man  is  supposed  to  have  the  right  of  a  trial,  the 
right  to  defend  himself  against  false  accusations. 
A  mob  never  reasons,  it  does  not  weigh  evidence, 
it  simply  acts  in  the  madness  of  its  fury.  I  quote 
a  case  in  point:  "William  McArthur  has  been 
for  many  years  the  janitor  of  a  white  church  in 
a  former  slave  State.  He  owns  a  farm  and  city 
house;  has  a  bank  account,  and  could  loan 
money  more  easily  than  most  of  the  church  mem 
bers  he  serves.  His  reputation  for  character  is 
as  good  as  theirs.  When,  therefore,  a  disrep 
utable  white  woman  attempted  to  blackmail  him 
by  threatening  to  charge  him  with  assault  on  a 
child,  he  naturally  went  to  the  church  officers  for 
advice.  They  believed  in  him  as  they  did  in 
each  other,  but  put  him  on  a  midnight  train  for 
California.  To  his  Northern  pastor  it  was  in 
credible  that  a  man  of  his  reputation  should  have 
to  flee  like  a  thief.  The  answer  was:  'This 
community  is  likely  to  lynch  first  and  investigate 
afterwards/  So  McArthur  went — he  could 
afford  to — saying,  with  pathetic  humor,  'I  al 
ways  wanted  to  travel  West,  anyhow.'  After  six 
months  he  felt  safe  to  come  back  and  take  up 
his  work.  Not  long  after  the  community  did 
lynch  three  negroes  on  an  Easter  morning.  The 
grand  jury,  investigating  afterward,  found  that 
two  of  them  were  certainly  innocent.  Only  bay- 


WHAT  CAN  WE  DO?  171 

onets  saved  the  negro  quarter  from  burning. 
Then  McArthur  came  to  his  pastor  to  know 
where,  under  the  stars  and  stripes,  a  self-respect 
ing  and  respected  black  man  could  buy  his  own 
vine  and  fig  tree,  and  go  and  sit  down  under 
them  in  the  ordinary  security  of  Christian  civil 
ization." 

"Now  McArthur's  character  is  fixed  so  that 
adversity,  while  it  seams  his  brow  and  weights 
his  steps,  does  not  make  a  social  rebel  of  him; 
but  his  boy,  when  I  last  saw  him,  was  behind 
the  bars." 

"Now,  I  charge  that  America  did  not  give 
McArthur's  boy  a  square  deal.  Of  course,  he 
is  a  responsible  soul,  with  heart,  will  and  con 
science  enough  to  make  some  impression  on  his 
own  moral  destiny.  Let  him  bear  his  full  share 
of  the  blame;  but  let  us  weigh  this:  he  had  felt 
the  helplessness  of  the  property-owning  negro 
before  the  blackmailer;  had  seen  his  father  a 
fugitive  at  midnight,  his  life  hanging  upon  an 
idle  word;  had  heard  just  men  confess  their  in 
ability  to  protect  one  in  whom  they  had  all  con 
fidence;  had  vainly  longed  for  a  fatherland  which 
could  guarantee  somewhere  a  peaceful  death  to 
one  who  had  lived  in  honor;  had  smelled  the 
burning  flesh  of  innocent  men  of  his  own  race. 
Besides  all  this,  his  own  weakness  had  been 
trafficked  in  by  a  venal  police  power.  Such 
things  are  not  calculated  to  make  a  young  negro 
into  a  model  citizen.  You  tell  me  that  after  all 
the  cord  and  the  torch  are  rare,  that  statistically 
one  is  more  likely  to  die  from  falling  off  a  step- 
ladder  at  home  than  a  negro  is  to  be  lynched.  I 


172  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

reply  that  when  one  has  once  come  under  the 
shadow  of  such  a  tragedy  he  can  never  forget 
it.  It  stamps  his  imagination  for  all  time  and 
sears  his  soul  against  the  social  order  in  which 
it  is  tolerated/'3 

Sentiment  Against  Lynching  Needed 

It  is  ours  to  create  a  sentiment  of  justice,  of 
respect  for  law,  of  reverence  for  the  authority  of 
the  courts.  No  nation  can  stand  where  its  law 
is  not  respected  and  where  any  chance  mob 
rises  up  and  in  the  name  of  justice  breaks  every 
law  of  the  land,  and  tramples  justice  under  its 
feet. 

Justice  in  Petty  Crimes 

The  negro  should  get  justice,  not  only  in  this 
respect,  but  also  in  petty  crimes.  We  need  to 
use  our  influence  here  to  see  that  he  does  get 
justice.  He  needs  justice  in  the  courts,  but  he 
does  not  get  it ;  far  too  infrequently  he  is  treated 
leniently  because  his  white  friend  pleads  his 
cause,  and  again,  too  frequently,  he  has  no 
chance  because  there  is  no  friend  at  court.  What 
ever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  the  negro  does 
not  get  full  justice  at  the  bar  of  the  law. 

Justice  in  Public  Conveyances 

Neither  does  he  get  fair  treatment  in  many 
public  conveyances.  I  once  asked  Prof.  John 
Wesley  Gilbert,  one  of  the  best  educated  and 
most  thoroughly  Christian  negroes  in  the  South, 
what  he  thought  of  the  "Jim  Crow"  laws.  His 

1  "Christian  Reconstruction  in  the  South,"  pp.  204-5. 


WHAT   CAN   WE  DO?  173 

reply  was  that  he  had  no  objection  to  them  if 
they  were  fairly  administered.  But,  of  course, 
they  are  not.  We  all  know  that.  Some  cheap, 
white  man  who  happens  to  be  in  authority  treats 
the  negro  with  disrespect  and  abuses  him,  lest 
some  one  may  think  that  he,  the  conductor,  is 
not  better  than  they.  Professor  Gilbert  told  me 
he  never  rode  on  the  car  with  his  wife,  lest  some 
cheap  conductor  might  insult  her,  and  he  would 
do  as  any  other  man,  defend  her,  and  a  mob 
would  be  the  result.  This  is  not  justice,  it  is 
not  humanity,  it  is  not  Christianity.  We  must 
change  it. 

Negro  Self-Sufficiency 

Lastly,  if  we  are  to  have  perfect  distinctness 
of  life  in  this  section,  we  must  make  the  negro 
sufficient  unto  himself.  So  long  as  all  honor 
lies  in  being  associated  with  the  white  man,  the 
negro  will  want  social  intermingling.  So  long 
as  there  are  none  of  his  own  race  that  can  meet 
him  on  a  high  plane  and  can  satisfy  the  longings 
of  his  soul,  just  so  long  will  he  be  driven  to  seek 
fellowship  with  white  men.  But  build  him  up, 
make  him  sufficient  in  himself,  give  him  within 
his  own  race  life  that  which  will  satisfy,  and  thv 
social  question  will  be  solved.  The  cultivated  ne 
gro  is  less  and  less  inclined  to  lose  himself  and 
his  race  in  the  sea  of  another  race.  As  he  de 
velops,  he  is  rinding  a  new  race  consciousness, 
he  is  building  a  new  race  pride.  He  no  longer 
objects  to  being  called  a  negro — it  is  becoming 
the  badge  of  his  race  and  the  mark  of  his  self- 
sufficiency.  We  have  nothing,  therefore,  to 


174  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

fear  from  giving  him  a  chance.  With  every  new 
chance  he  becomes  more  satisfied  to  live  his  life 
within  the  pale  of  his  own  race.  If  ever  the  negro 
is  to  become  an  efficient  workman  and  a  real 
economic  factor,  it  will  be  because  he  has  so  far 
been  elevated  in  his  desires  and  needs  that  only 
constant  labor  can  satisfy  his  wants.  We  shall 
increase  his  efficiency  by  increasing  his  wants. 
If  ever  he  is  to  become  a  good  citizen,  it  will  be 
because  he  has  been  so  elevated  as  to  desire  de 
cency  and  honor,  and  not  because  he  fears  the  law 
if  he  lives  otherwise.  If  he  is  to  be  kept  as  a 
separate  and  distinct  race,  without  any  desire 
to  mingle  in  social  life  with  the  white  race,  it 
will  be  by  making  his  race  so  self-sufficient  that 
he  can  find  his  desires,  his  ambitions,  his  social 
longings  satisfied  within  his  own  ranks.  This 
must  come  through  the  elevation  of  the  whole 
race. 

We  Need  not  Fear  Advancement 

We  have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  advance 
ment  of  the  negroes.  It  is  a  poor  race  which 
can  sustain  the  position  it  has  won  only  by  for 
ever  crowding  down  other  races  that  come  into 
competition  with  itself.  For  my  part,  I  do  not 
believe  the  white  race  need  take  any  such  posi 
tion.  We  shall  be  able  to  hold  our  own  and  care 
for  our  own,  however  great  the  advancement  of 
the  negro  race  may  be.  Rather,  my  fear  is  that 
the  negro  race  in  the  South  will  remain  so  back 
ward,  that  it  will  remain  so  ignorant,  that  it  will 
remain  so  far  in  the  rear  of  civilization,  that  we 
of  the  South  will  forever  be  held  down  b  the 


WHAT  CAN   WE  DO?  175 

weight  of  our  helpless  neighbors,  and  allow  the 
people  of  other  sections  of  our  country  to  march 
on  and  leave  us  hopelessly  behind  in  our  wealth, 
in  our  civilization,  and  in  our  culture. 

Negro  Needs  Encouragement 

Let  us  encourage  the  negro  race  to  advance  as 
rapidly  as  possible ;  let  us  give  him  all  the  chance 
we  can.  He  does  not  need  to  be  held  back  or 
discouraged;  he  needs  to  be  cheered  on.  He 
needs  to  have  held  before  him  the  records  of 
high  endeavor.  No  boy  has  ever  grown  great 
by  believing  that  his  life  was  worthless  and  his 
ability  below  the  average.  No  race  will  ever  be 
come  useful  and  industrious  by  being  brow 
beaten  and  discouraged.  However  difficult  the 
task,  we  must  bring  the  negro  to  believe  in  him 
self.  We  must  make  him  feel  that  he  is  capable 
of  being  a  true  man.  We  must  help  him  to 
become  sufficient  unto  himself.  Any  other  course 
on  our  part  is  the  madness  of  a  slow  suicide,  for 
we  rise  or  fall  with  the  moral  power  of  our 
section. 

Will  We  Stand  the  Test 

Ours  is,  perhaps,  the  most  difficult  task  that 
has  been  set  before  the  people  of  any  section  of 
America.  It  will  require  more  patience,  it  will 
cost  more  faith,  it  will  need  more  persistence,  it 
will  demand  a  truer  sympathy,  and  it  will  re 
quire  more  Christian  courage  to  solve  this  great 
question  than  any  other  question  that  faces  the 
American  people.  If  we  are  faithless  in  this 
trust,  woe  be  to  ourselves  and  our  successors! 


176  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

But  if  we  are  faithful,  the  very  difficulty  of  our 
task  will  mean  a  greater  manhood  and  a  brighter 
glory  than  a  lesser  task  could  give.  I  have  faith 
that  the  educated  men  of  the  South  will  not  be 
wail  their  fate,  but  that  they  will,  with  the 
strength  of  men,  meet  and  master  these  stupend- 
our  difficulties.  It  is  not  the  negro  that  is  on 
trial  before  the  world,  but  it  is  we,  the  white  men 
of  the  South.  The  world  is  looking  on  to  see 
whether  we  shall  have  sufficient  wisdom,  suffi 
cient  courage,  sufficient  Christian  spirit  to  lend 
a  helping  hand  to  the  race  that  is  down.  May 
the  spirit  of  the  Christ,  the  Friend  of  Men,  give 
us  strength  to  stand  the  test, 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  volumes  listed  in  this  bibliography  are  some  of  the  best 
in  print.  The  word  of  explanation  after  each  title  has  not  'been 
intended  in  a  critical  spirit,  but  to  help  those  who  only  care  to 
purchase  one  or  two  volumes  to  secure  the  ones  which  will  best 
meet  their  needs.  Each  volume  here  listed  has  been  carefully 
read  for  this  purpose. — W.  D.  W. 

Atlanta  University  Publications  (Atlanta  University 
Press,  1896-1906)  : 

No.  I,  Mortality  among   Negroes  in   Cities,   1896. 
Mortality  among  Negroes   in   Cities,   1903. 

2,  Social    and    Physical    Condition    of   Negroes   in 

Cities,  1897. 

3,  Some    Efforts    of    Negroes    for    Social    Better 

ment,  1898. 

4,  The  Negro   in  Business,   1899. 

5,  The  College  Bred   Negro,   1900   (two  editions). 

6,  The  Negro  Common  School,  1001. 

7,  The  Negro  Artisan,  1902. 

8,  The  Negro  Church,  1903. 

9,  Notes   on   Negro   Crime,    1904. 

10,  A  Select  Bibliography  of  the  Negro  American, 

1905. 
n,  Health  and   Physique  of  the  Negro  American, 

1906. 

These  are  the  most  thorough  and  original  investiga 
tions  of  the  negro  problem  that  have  been  made. 

BRYCE,  JAMES.  "The  Relation  of  the  Advanced  and 
the  Backward  Races  of  Mankind."  Clarendon 
Press,  1003.  A  clear  statement  of  the  conditions 
under  which  races  amalgamate  and  those  under 
which  racial  integrity  prevails. 

179 


l8o  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

*  BAKER,  RAY  STANNARD.  "Following  the  Color  Line." 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  1908.  A  clear,  fair  state 
ment  of  race  conditions,  as  seen  by  a  Northern 
man  on  an  extended  tour  through  the  South;  per 
haps  the  sanest  book  on  the  topic  by  a  Northern 
man. 

COMMONS,  JOHN  R.  "Races  and  Immigrants  in  Amer 
ica."  The  Macmillan  Company,  1908. 

DuBois,  W.  E.  B.  "The  Souls  of  Black  Folk."  A.  C. 
McClurg  &  Co.,  1907.  From  the  standpoint  of  one 
of  the  most  cultured  and  literary  colored  men  in 
America.  It  bears  the  marks  of  keen  insight  into 
the  thought  of  the  race — at  times  bitterly  pessi 
mistic. 

DOUGLASS,  H.  PAUL.  "Christian  Reconstruction  in  the 
South."  The  Pilgrim  Press,  1909.  A  study  of 
the  work  of  the  American  Missionary  Association 
in  the  South. 


DOWD,  JEROME.  "The  Negro  Races."  The  Macmillan 
Company,  1907.  A  scholarly  study  of  three  of  the 
five  great  divisions  of  the  negro  race  in  Africa. 

*DUNBAR,  PAUL  LAURENCE.  "Lyrics  of  Lowly  Life." 
Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  1896.  Poems  that  catch  the 
spirit  of  the  old-time  "darkey"  to  a  remarkable 
degree.  Likewise  his  poems  of  Cabin  and  Field, 
etc. 


GROGMAN.  "Progress  of  a  Race."  J.  L.  Nichols  &  Co., 
1907.  A  running  account  of  the  life  of  the  Amer 
ican  Negro — not  all  too  accurate. 

HART,  ALBERT  BUSH  NELL.  "The  Southern  South."  Ap- 
pleton,  1910. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  l8l 

HELM,  MARY.  "The  Upward  Path."  Young  People's 
Missionary  Movement,  1909.  A  very  sane  state 
ment  by  a  Southern  woman  who  writes  with  clear 
insight  and  with  deep  sympathy  for  the  negro's 
struggle. 

HOFFMAN,  FREDERICK  L.  "Race  Traits  and  Tendencies 
of  the  American  Negro."  American  Economic  As 
sociation.  Published  by  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1896. 
The  most  scholarly  and  exhaustive  study  yet  made 
of  population,  vital  statistics,  anthropometry,  and 
race  amalgamation. 

HARRISON  &  BARNES.  "The  Gospel  among  the  Slaves." 
Smith  &  Lamar,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  1893.  A  careful 
compilation  of  facts  concerning  the  evangelization 
of  the  negro  during  days  of  slavery. 

MILLER,  KELLY.  "Race  Adjustment."  The  Neale  Pub 
lishing  Company,  1908.  Strictly  reliable  as  to  facts, 
showing  deep  insight  into  the  life  of  the  race;  a 
little  critical  of  the  white  man. 

*MIRRIAM,  GEORGE  S.  "The  Negro  and  the  Nation." 
Young  People's  Missionary  Movement,  1906.  A 
historical  statement  of  the  political  questions  aris 
ing  out  of  slavery. 

*MURPHY,  EDGAR  GARDINER.  "The  Present  South."  The 
Macmillan  Co.,  1904.  The  best  expression  of  the 
spirit  of  the  New  South,  dealing  with  many  phases 
of  the  Negro  question. 

"The  Basis  of  Ascendency."  Longmans,  Green 
&  Co.,  1909.  An  "explicit  statement  of  those  fun 
damental  principles  of  policy"  which  underlie  the 
solution  of  the  race  question.  Absolutely  fair  and 
Christian  in  spirit. 

NASSAU,  ROBERT  HAMILL.  "Fetichism  in  West  Africa." 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1904.  A  most  entertaining 


l82  NEGRO  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

and  thorough   statement  of  the  religious  life  and 
practices  of  the  West  African  negro. 

*PAGE,  THOMAS  NELSON.  "The  Negro,  the  Southerner's 
Problem."  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1904.  Charac 
terized  by  thorough  familiarity  with  the  "old-time" 
negro,  with  less  accurate  knowledge  of  present 
conditions.  Prone  to  magnify  all  the  virtues  of 
the  slave,  and  all  the  vices  of  the  present  negro. 

ROYCE,  JOSIAH.  "Race  Questions,  Provincialism,  and 
Other  American  Problems."  The  Macmillan  Com 
pany,  1908.  It  is  tolerably  certain  that  few  South 
ern  men  will  accept  Professor  Royce's  statement 
that  race  antipathies  are  on  a  "level  with  a  dread 
of  snakes  and  of  mice."  The  volume  can  hardly 
be  called  unbiased  or  scholarly. 

SHANNON,  A.  H.  "Racial  Integrity."  Smith  &  Lamar, 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  and  Dallas,  Texas,  1907.  A 
study  of  race  amalgamation  and  other  topics. 

SINCLAIR,  WILLIAM  A.  "The  Aftermath  of  Slavery." 
Small,  Maynard  &  Co.,  1905.  Somewhat  unfair  in 
its  treatment  of  the  question.  The  author  is  a  col 
ored  man  who  chafes  under  present  conditions. 

SMITH,  WILLIAM  BENJAMIN.  "The  Color  Line."  Mc- 
Clure,  Phillips  &  Co.,  1904.  Brilliant  in  its  state 
ments,  but  bitter  in  its  sarcasm.  It  is  doubtful  if 
the  conclusions  reached  as  to  the  future  decay  of 
the  negro  will  prove  true. 

THOMAS,  WILLIAM  HANNIBAL.  "The  American  Negro.* 
The  Macmillan  Company,  1901.  The  harshest  ar 
raignment  of  the  race  by  one  of  its  own  members. 
While  showing  clear  insight  into  negro  character, 
it  is  certainly  unfair. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  183 

WASHINGTON  &  DuBois.  "The  Negro  in  the  South." 
George  W.  Jacobs  &  Co.,  1907.  Dealing  with  the 
economic  and  religious  life  of  the  negro. 

^WASHINGTON,  BOOKER  T.  "Up  from  Slavery."  Double- 
day,  Page  &  Co.,  1907.  An  autobiography  of  the 
writer,  full  of  interest,  and  written  in  the  finest 
spirit. 

"Working  with  Hands."  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co., 
1904.  A  splendid  story  of  the  Tuskegee  Institute 
and  a  powerful  argument  for  industrial  education. 

"Character  Building."  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co., 
1903. 

Chapel  Talks  by  B.  T.  Washington  at  Tuskegee 
Institute. 

•The  Y.  P.  M.  M.,  New  York,  has  published  a  set  of  seven 
vwlumes  on  the  Negro  question,  price  $5.  This  set  includes  the 
volumes  marked  with  a  star,  and  "Daybreak  in  the  Dark  Con 
tinent,"  by  Naylor. 


Fundamental  Religious  Principles 
in  Browning's  Poetry 

BY 
W.   D.   WEATHERFORD,  Ph.  D. 

"Dr.  Weatherford  has  done  an  excellent  piece  of 
work  in  putting  the  main  thought  of  this  great 
Christian  poet  on  the  chief  verities  of  our  religion 
within  the  popular  reach.  It  is  tersely  put,  very 
much  to  the  point,  well  substantiated  by  abundant 
quotations." — Zion  Herald,  Boston. 

"Dr.  Weatherford  has  made  a  serious  study  of 
his  [Browning's]  works,  has  gathered  up  his  views 
on  the  great  fundamentals,  has  arranged  them  in 
systematic  order,  and  put  them  in  plain  and  lucid 
prose." — Christian  Observer,  Louisville,  Ky. 

"The  book  is  more  than  readable,  it  is  interest 
ing.  It  is  more  than  interesting,  it  is  instructive. 
We  heartily  commend  it."— Christian  Advocate, 
Raleigh,  N,  C. 

"Browning  with  his  deep  insight  interpreted 
nature,  man,  life,  God,  Christ.  Mr.  Weatherford 
has  interpreted  Browning's  interpretation.  The 
result  is"  a  fresh  and  vital  statement  of  the  reality 
and  personality  of  God,  the  divine-human  and 
human-divine  of  Christ,  and  an  elucidation  of  the 
problem  of  evil,  which,  itself  out  of  the  ordinary, 
affords  relief  and  comfort  of  no  ordinary  sort." — 
Dr.  Gross  Alexander,  in  Methodist  Review,  Nash 
ville,  Tenn. 

isrno.  153  Pages,  with  Foreword  by  Gross  Alexander,  S.  T.  D. 
Price  $1.00 

SMITH    &   LAMAR 

Nashville,  Tenn.  Dallas,  Texas. 

or 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  Press,  124  East  a8th  St.,  New  York  City 

184 


College  Problems 

A  STUDY  OF  RELIGIOUS  ACTIVITIES  AMONG 
COLLEGE  MEN 


Series  i,  2,  and  3,  being  the  official  publications  of 
the  Summer  School  of  the  Southern  Student  Secre 
taries  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 
for  the  last  three  years. 

Each  series  contains  twelve  to  fifteen  carefully 
prepared  papers  on  various  phases  of  Student  Asso 
ciation  work,  e.g.: 

The  Honor  System  in  College 

Relation  of  Association  Bible  Study  to  Curriculum 

Work 

Religious  Meetings  of  the  Association 
The  Student  Secretaryship  as  a  life  calling,  etc., 
etc. 

Papers  prepared  by  College  Professors  and  Stu 
dent  Secretaries  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso 
ciations. 

Wide  awake,  up-to-date,  practical — gathering  up 
the  experience  of  the  foremost  religious  workers 
among  college  men.  Contains  just  the  facts  that 
every  officer  and  committeeman  should  have. 

Price  25  cents  per  copy  for  each  series 
ADDRESS 

W.    H.    MORGAN 
1513  Hayes  St.,  Nashville,  Tenn., 

or 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  Press,  124  East  aSth  St.,  New  York  City 
185 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


MAY20B5-9AM 


APR  3  0  1968  8  9 

Wk  *6  i^^HT 

E 

LD  21A-50m-ll,'62 
(D3279slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


VB  37257 


^*&n&f 


